The UK public sector trial of the 4-day working week had virtually no downsides

• A four-day working week at a British council reduced staff turnover by 39%, researchers from two universities have found.
• The council saved almost $500,000 and staff mental health and motivation improved.
• The experiment showed improved or stable performance in 22 of 24 areas.

A four-day working week reduces staff turnover, improves mental health and saves money, according to the largest study to be carried out in the UK public sector.

On Monday, scientists from two British universities — Cambridge and Salford — published the results of a 15-month shortened working week experiment.

The experiment began in January 2023 at the initiative of South Cambridgeshire District Council in south-east England.

It is the largest ever trial of a four-day working week in the UK public sector, with 697 workers taking part, including office workers and waste handlers.

As part of the project, employees were expected to perform 100% of their tasks 80% of the time and receive full pay.

The researchers assessed 24 areas, including employee motivation, staff mental health and employee engagement in their roles.

Of the 24 areas assessed, performance improved or remained the same in 22. Staff turnover was reduced by 39%, significantly reducing the need for recruitment. The number of external applicants for vacancies also increased significantly, with 76% reporting that the four-day trial week had influenced their application for vacancies.

Prof Daiga Kamerāde, one of the report’s authors and professor of work and wellbeing at the University of Salford, told Business Insider: “Organisations that are too reluctant to adopt a four-day week may start to fall behind, because that’s what we’re seeing in other attempts.”

“Organizations that are the forerunners in the industry in trying four-day workweeks attract the best talent because people say if they can work four or five days a week, they will move to where they can work four days a week,” she said.

The project saved the council £371,500 ($476,980), mostly in agency staff costs, which affected just 10 posts.

The researchers found that employees saw improvements in their mental and physical health and increased motivation.

“You can see across the board that, if anything, there is much more evidence that things improved during the trial period compared to the period before the trial,” Prof Brendan Burchell, another author of the report and a professor at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, told BI.

Discussing the positive results of the four-day workweek experiment, he said: “This should give other organisations a lot of confidence that this is definitely something to look at.”

The shorter week had only two drawbacks.

Rents charged on social housing fell slightly and the average number of days before the stock was re-let worsened slightly. Burchell said national issues, such as the cost of living crisis and people struggling to pay their bills, were partly to blame for the problematic aspects of the process.

The US, Canada, Ireland and Germany are among the countries that have trialled a shortened workweek. Belgium became the first country to introduce a four-day week in February 2022.

In a post-pandemic world accustomed to remote and hybrid work, and with more and more reports praising the benefits of longer weekends, this movement is gaining popularity.

“When employees are more rested, have a better work-life balance and have more time for themselves outside of work, they actually do better at their jobs,” Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week campaign to move to a shorter workweek without losing pay, told BI.

“We find that people do all sorts of things on their days off, like volunteering in the community,” he said.

“Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about, creating a society where we can all live happier, healthier lives.”