The concept of a four-day workweek has gained traction in the last few years, and many companies have tried it with varying results.
But what is a four-day workweek? As obvious as it may sound, some of the experiments that real companies conducted show that it is not as straightforward as it may sound.
The way that it was originally designed, the four-day workweek is a reduction in the workweek from a standard 40 hours to 32 hours for the same pay and benefits. This last bit is crucial for this concept as it was originally intended.
In some cases, companies tried to implement a four-day workweek while still expecting workers to go through the full 40 hours journey, or they cut salaries and/or benefits. While you can make a case for this kind of regimen, it's not at all what the four-day workweek movement is trying to achieve.
One of the organizations that are trying to boost the adoption of this new model by helping companies to implement pilot programs of a four-day workweek is 4 Day Week Global, a not-for-profit community established by Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart.
They conducted an assessment where 33 companies that employed over 900 people implemented a four-day workweek for a trial period of 6 months.
The results of the experiment are quite interesting, and a full report can be obtained on the 4 Day Week Global website, but let's take a look at some of the highlights.
The average revenue increase was 8.14% (weighted by company size), which means more than 1% per month for the 6-month trial period. When compared to the same six-month period of the previous year, the increase was much larger at 37.55%.
Talent retention and acquisition were also positively impacted, and there was a 12.16% increase in the number of employees over the course of the trial.
Not surprisingly, employee well-being and happiness also showed signs of improvement and many metrics back that up.
The report by 4 Day Week Global is, understandably, heavily focused on the positive aspects, but are there downsides?
From what I could gather, a lot of the issues with a four-day workweek come from misunderstanding the concept and poor implementation.
As mentioned above, many companies tried to simply compress the same work expedient in four days or implemented pay cuts and reduction of benefits, claiming that it was necessary to make up for the loss of productivity.
The fundamental issue with that line of thought is that it's based on the premise that there is a direct and linear correlation between working hours and productivity, which is precisely what the four-day workweek aims to disprove.
The new concept is based on the hypothesis that happier workers can be more efficient and therefore deliver the same (or even more) work in less time.
However, there was one issue I found that happened even in cases where the four-day workweek was properly implemented, and it has to do with customer satisfaction.
Many clients complained about the fact they could not get proper service or access government facilities that were shut down on a Friday or Monday, for example.
This is a potential roadblock that will need to be addressed. Maybe it is just a matter of getting used to the new ways of working, but perhaps some measures to facilitate the transition will be needed.
