Companies that participated in a four-day workweek experiment have further reduced the amount of time employees are on the clock six months after the study’s end. The companies also continue to see increased productivity and benefits, according to new data from the pilot program.
The non-profit 4 Day Week Global found that companies’ average working hours continued to fall after the six-month pilot program ended in February.
For companies who took part in the experiment, the average four-day workweek started from a baseline of 38 hours. At the end of the trial, average weekly hours totalled 33.85. In the intervening months, they’ve dropped to 32.97, down almost a full hour from the six-month mark.
“Crucially, this reduction was not achieved via increased work intensity, where people had to speed up and cram five days of tasks into four. Instead, they operated more efficiently and continued to improve these capabilities as the year progressed,” Dale Whelehan, CEO at 4 Day Week Global, said in a statement.
Immediately after the pilot program ended, 92% of the companies indicated they planned to continue with the truncated work schedule because the benefits were so clear. Only two companies involverd in the project said they would “definitely not” continue with the shorter workweek.
A better work-life balance for workers
According to the updated data, workers remained highly positive about the change over the past six months, continuing to give the change a nine out of 10. Self-rated physical and mental health measures have also improved since the beginning of the study in 2022, with employees also reporting better work-life balance.
The study, performed by the non-profit and several universities, was the largest of its kind; it involved 61 companies and about 3,000 workers. Including a previous study of companies in US and Ireland, a total of 91 companies with about 3,500 workers completed pilot programs testing out a shorter workweek.
During the study, businesses decreased their weekly schedules by six hours on average, from about 41 to 35 hours per week per employee. Businesses that agreed to provide data on their results reported an 8% increase in revenue during the trial period — and a 38% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to the researchers.
“Almost all companies that move to a four-day week do three main things: radically shorten and reform meetings; use technology more thoughtfully and mindfully; and redesign the workday to build in distinct periods for focused work, meetings and social time,” Whelehan said in an email response to Computerworld. “These are all things we assist companies with on our pilot program, ahead of launching their trials.”
Studies show that the average worker loses two to three hours each day to badly structured meetings, poor technology implementations and simple distractions, according to Whelehan. “So, the four-day week is…
2023-07-27 04:48:03
Article from www.computerworld.com rnrn