In Autumn 2024 the non-profit group ‘4 Day Week Campaign’ launched a second pilot scheme trialling further proposals to introduce a four-day working week.
To achieve this businesses adapted the working week by compressing the number of hours usually worked over five days to four:
Example:
- Employee works 40 hours per week
- 40 hours over 5 days (8 hours)
- 40 hours over 4 days (10 hours)
The total number of worked hours remains the same each week, but the employee can choose to start or end their weekend on either a Friday or Monday
Businesses from different industry sectors were invited to sign up to the scheme which ran from November 2024 for a period of six months.
The trials have now concluded and many that participated have hailed it a success, and viewed it a positive step towards promoting staff wellbeing, culminating in many of the small and medium businesses adopting the changes in the workplace.
Across the small and medium sized businesses that participated some decided to retain the measures, whilst others introduced similar models that were more appropriate for their organisation.
Further trials will be promoted for specific sectors in the future. Since April 2024, the right to request flexible working has become a day-one right and as the current Government is keen to see flexible working becoming default models in the workplace, they are likely to be interested in the results from this and future pilot schemes.
Of course compressing working hours into a four-day week will not be suitable for all industries but it is interesting that some of the smaller businesses have seen the benefits of this in particular as one would be inclined to assume that smaller businesses would be presented with more challenges for the workforce in keeping the business ‘ticking over’.
Equally it is not to be assumed that this would be easier for larger organisations to incorporate such changes as this will largely depend on the structure of the business.
Future dates of further trials can be found here: https://www.4dayweek.co.uk/upcoming-pilots-2025
