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YouTube MusicCompanies are exploring ways to offer more flexibility and better work-life balance to their employees. One trend gaining traction is the four-day workweek. In a pilot program in Britain, 56 out of 61 businesses decided to continue with the four-day workweek, recognizing its benefits.
Benefits for employees include better work-life balance and reduced burnout. According to the pilot program, 70% of employees reported lower levels of burnout at the end of the trial. Benefits for employers include increased employee retention and productivity.
In this episode, Darcy and Sascha delve into the arguments for the 4 day work week, and how they potentially could benefit…
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Sascha: [00:00:02] From Equity Mates media. This is the dive. I'm your host, Sascha Kelly. In the second half of last year, 61 businesses based in Britain offered their employees a four day workweek as part of a pilot program.
Audio Clip: [00:00:15] A Four Day workweek may seem too good to be true, but it could become a reality for many after an overwhelmingly positive result.
Sascha: [00:00:21] At the completion of the trial. 56 of the 61 businesses said that they would be continuing with a four day workweek and 18 said the change would be permanent. Let's face it, there wouldn't be many employees out there, myself included, who wouldn't want a four day workweek. But getting your employer on the same side is the hard part. Well, maybe you should tell your boss this. 70% of employees have reduced levels of burnout by the end of the trial, and there was virtually no change in the revenue generated. It's Wednesday, the 1st of March. And today I want to know, what do I tell my boss to convince them to implement a four day workweek? To talk about this today. I'm joined by my colleague here at Equity Mates is Darcy Cordell. Darcy, welcome to The Dive.
Darcy: [00:01:07] Hi, Sascha. We love this topic, always, So keen to talk about it.
Sascha: [00:01:11] I know. I think there's a reason that you're hosting with me today and not Alec who is a co-owner of the business and co-founder. But let's try and get our best spiel together, our best 30 second elevator pitch for why we should move to the four day workweek. And let's pitch it at the end of this episode.
Audio Clip: [00:01:32] This is what a Friday looks like at environmental consultancy firm Tyler Grange. All the staff are off. They get 100% of their pay, but do 80% of the hours.
Sascha: [00:01:43] So, Darcy, let's dive into it. This trial took place in Britain with the 61 companies involved. It was the world's largest trial of a four day workweek. Who was responsible for this pilot and how were the companies selected to be a pod?
Darcy: [00:01:59] The pilot was organised by non-profit group Four Day Week Global, in collaboration with researchers at Boston College and also the University of Cambridge. So they, 61 companies in the study day were invited to participate and they came from a wide range of sectors. We had people in banking, retail, media and other sectors, but most were relatively small companies. Over half of the 61 had ten or fewer employees and there were just under 3000 employees in total involved in the program.
Sascha: [00:02:28] Did all the businesses have to meet the same requirements and have the same schedules?
Darcy: [00:02:33] Not quite. The premise was to produce the same output for the same pay, but in a 32 hour week rather than a 40 hour week. And it was really up to the businesses to make the rules outside of that. So companies could give employees one day a week off. They could reduce their working hours over the six months to average out to 32 hours per week. But they really had their own policies depending on their industry structure and their work culture. So, yes, some decided to take Fridays off, some took midweek days and others rotated the days. Okay.
Sascha: [00:03:05] And the six month pilot wrapped up recently. And now we've received a report that has the findings from the whole study. What are some of the key takeaways?
Darcy: [00:03:16] Well, they were overwhelmingly positive, which is what we love to say. 71% of workers reported lower levels of stress and burnout. They said it was easier to juggle work, their social lives and their caring responsibilities. The number of sick days down 65% and job retention also improved. On average. Company revenue was barely affected during a six month trial, but it did rise 35% on average when compared with a similar period from previous years. And there were actually some outliers on that too. Web development company Buckeye Innovation, who was part of the trial. They saw a 30% revenue increase in the period.
Sascha: [00:03:56] My favourite headline, Darcy, that I read was that 15% of the employees who participated said, quote, No amount of money, end quote, would convince them to go back to working five days a week. Strong words to see Most of these companies are agreeing with their employees and they're continuing with the four day week despite the trial finishing.
Darcy: [00:04:21] Yeah, that's right. 56 of the 61 said they'll continue with the four day workweek and 18 of those will do it permanently. Two companies are extending the trial, so they're not quite sure yet, but only three of the 61 companies don't plan to carry on with any element of the four day workweek.
Sascha: [00:04:39] So there are a lot of positive results. Most of them you'd expect like less burn out and more time to balance social life and caregiving. Were there any unexpected benefits that they didn't expect that they saw as a result?
Darcy: [00:04:54] One of the companies in the study actually decided to measure the impact of the shorter workweek on its carbon foot. And they found a 21% reduction in the number of miles travelled by car. So that kind of makes sense. You know, you take away 20% of the workweek, 20% reduction in miles travelled. But there was also an average 10% decrease in commuting time across all the companies in the trial. And these are both certainly helpful for the environment with less time spent in cars and less emissions as a result.
Sascha: [00:05:23] So, Darcy, it's kind of easy after hearing these headlines and reading these reports to just think, why doesn't everyone just adopt a four day workweek? But I'm not that naive. It's not as simple as that. There are some drawbacks.
Audio Clip: [00:05:37] But I'm a little bit sceptical of some of these results. So it's not a huge number and it's a lot of small companies with great cultures already. So the jury's out whether it can be sustained in larger companies over a large period of time.
Darcy: [00:05:50] There was only one company of the 61 with over 400 employees. We're yet to really say how a four day workweek might apply to a big corporation. Imagine a Google or a BHP deciding to just work for days. And opponents admit it does benefit some workers, but it's just not feasible for many others, like health care workers, childcare workers. And these areas already face pretty widespread staff shortages. And then there's some workers who would rather work more and earn more. They want to work five or six days a week. And some sceptics also believe that employees' productivity would eventually decrease if the four day workweek became permanent.
Sascha: [00:06:29] The benefits do outweigh the drawbacks. This is obviously, though, such a major endorsement for the four day workweek, and we said it's the biggest study of its kind to take place. The results speak for themselves for this particular study, but have others shown the same results?
Darcy: [00:06:46] The findings from this trial actually build on the results of an earlier smaller pilot, which was also coordinated by four day week global. And that experiment involved 30 companies and 1000 employees. So about a third of the size. And they were in several countries. And there were similar findings in this study, too. Less sick days there was improved well-being and actually an increase in revenue.
Audio Clip: [00:07:07] We see there's actually been a decline in the amount of sick days taken during the period of the trial. We were starting off that clip around about 545 days, perhaps per person per year on average. It's down to less than two at the moment. So I think it's a really substantial difference, actually.
Darcy: [00:07:25] But there are plenty of other studies, too. There was a 2019 study on the four day week published by Henley Business School, and they produced very similar results as well. In 2019, Microsoft did a month-long trial of a four day workweek, and that was in Japan, and it led to a 40% increase in productivity in that month. And there are also a bunch of studies happening now. There's 20 companies across Australia and New Zealand who began trialling the four day work week in early August. So, again, overwhelmingly positive results. But many of these studies do show that there's not really a one size fits all approach to the four day week. It needs to be tailored to the individual company and their scenario.
Sascha: [00:08:04] So before we get too excited, Darcy, it's important to note that virtually all of the companies participating in these programs were predisposed to exploring the concept of a flexible week. They volunteered to be a part of it. This might be a classic example of the Hawthorne effect, which we're going to explain in just a minute.
Audio Clip: [00:08:30] And now the world's biggest trial of a four day working week has ended in success with the performance of companies largely unharmed and workers feeling healthier and happier.
Sascha: [00:08:40] Welcome back to The Dive. I'm your host, Sascha Kelly. I'm joined by my colleague Darcy Codell. And today we're talking about, well, it's a four day workweek and we want to give you the tools to go to work today and argue for why you should work one day less with your boss. If that is helpful to you in any way, then you can repay the favour for us with a very simple task. Just go to your podcast player and give us five stars and maybe leave a cheeky review while you're there. It is such a small thing from you and it makes the biggest difference to us in terms of climbing the charts, getting served to more listeners, basically just getting further with the resources we have. So a huge thank you to you if you've already done that and A please, would you consider it if you haven't already? Anyway, Darcy, let's get back to the subject at hand. We've seen overwhelmingly positive results from virtually all of the trials of a four day workweek, but this might be an example of the Hawthorne effect, which is what I teased just before the break. Can you explain what that is and how it might apply here?
Darcy: [00:09:42] The Hawthorne effect is when participants in a study change their behaviour because they know they're being studied, they know they're being watched.
Sascha: [00:09:50] Darcy It sounds like me at the gym. I say I work, my lunges are really good when someone's watching me and.
Darcy: [00:09:57] So you can see how this might apply to working for days as.
Sascha: [00:10:01] Well. Yeah, absolutely. It's an extension of the same thing.
Darcy: [00:10:04] We assume that almost everyone wants to work less hours or less days rather than more so in theory, the participants may have worked extra hard and changed their normal working behaviour in the hope that it convinced their employers to permanently implement the four day workweek. We don't actually know if people's behaviour will remain the same after the study is done and the researchers are not there watching.
Sascha: [00:10:27] So maybe the only real way to experiment with the four day workweek is to stop doing trials.
Audio Clip: [00:10:33] Well, tech firms comprise the biggest group adopting four day reduced hours schedules. Companies are also making the switch in banking, PR, marketing and design nonprofits, consumer goods, even a restaurant.
Sascha: [00:10:47] Chain. The many businesses that have made that permanent change And are they reporting on what they're finding?
Darcy: [00:10:53] There are a bunch of startups around the world and they definitely over index. It's a big start up thing to have a permanent four day week. There's a couple that you might have heard of. There's us e-commerce company Bolt, there's fundraising platform, Kickstarter, even tech company, Panasonic. They've all implemented four day workweeks and I think it definitely helps them attract talent. They've all said that they have no plans to ditch the four day week. There was a trial in Iceland a couple of years ago, and since that trial's finished, 86% of Iceland's employees work fewer hours for the same pay than they did prior to that major trial in the country. [00:11:30][36.1]
Sascha: [00:11:30] It does get me thinking, could this movement apply to other industries such as education? I read a headline this week saying that thousands of schools in the U.S. are also switching and trying a four day school week instead of a five day week.
Darcy: [00:11:45] Yeah, more than 600 schools in 24 states across the US have made the switch to four day school weeks. They generally have Monday off and then school runs for an extra hour on Tuesday through to Friday to make up the time.
Audio Clip: [00:11:59] In Colorado, for example, more than half of all districts now follow a four day week in New Mexico around 40%.
Darcy: [00:12:06] But this is quite a different reasoning here. The number of schools going to four days is increasing, mainly because of widespread teacher shortages, and a lot of the parents are unhappy about it, too, because they're still working five days per week. But then they've got to worry about their kids being at home or paying for childcare costs. So those costs and worries have actually risen.
Sascha: [00:12:25] That's a completely valid point. If you're working somewhere that's still on a five day structure and your children aren't, then you do have a bit of an issue there. But Darcy, there's no doubt that overall the results we've seen from these studies show that most businesses and employees benefit from working a 32 hour week compared to the traditional 40. But look, here's the challenge. We want to convince Bryce and Alec that we can cut down. Give me the 30 seconds spiel of exactly what I need to say when I have my production meeting later today to convince them to give it a go.
Darcy: [00:13:00] Let's tell them that we've got an offer for them and we'll ask them if they would accept those conditions.
Sascha: [00:13:06] Okay.
Darcy: [00:13:07] So Bryce and Alec, your revenue is likely to increase. All of our staff, we're going to be happier and more productive, sick days. They're going to be massively reduced. We're going to be in the office all the time. Our stress levels, they're going to be so much lower. We're going to be having the best time. And you don't have to change anyone's salary. Would you say no to that?
Sascha: [00:13:28] I mean, I wouldn't. I'm not Bryce or Alec, but I wouldn't say no to that.
Darcy: [00:13:33] I didn't think so, Sascha. The only catch is, obviously we work four days a week. Times are changing. Don't be scared, Bryce and Alec. Let's embrace it.
Sascha: [00:13:41] Well, look, Darcy, I think our pitch needs a little bit of smoothing out. We could be a bit shorter and sharper, but it does seem like this is something that more and more companies are embracing. And. And I do think it's really one to watch. I think the four day working week is probably coming to a company near you sometime soon. If you want to keep the conversation going with The Dive, then contact us by email thedive@equitymates.com. If you're working at a Start-Up or a company that's trying a four day working week, we want to hear from you. How is it going? Let us know. Slide into our DMS. If you've joined us for the first time, then welcome. Hit, follow or subscribe wherever you're listening right now. And then you're just never going to miss an episode again. Darcy, thanks so much for joining me today. And you know, going through those numbers and seeing if we can put a pitch together.
Darcy: [00:14:31] Thanks, Sascha. It was a lot of fun.
Sascha: [00:14:33] Until next time.
