“In the largest public sector trial of the four-day week in Britain, fewer refuse collectors quit,” reports the Guardian, “and there were faster planning decisions, more rapid benefits processing and quicker call answering, independent research has found.” South Cambridgeshire district council’s controversial experiment with a shorter working week resulted in improvements in performance in 11 out of 24 areas, little or no change in 11 areas and worsening of performance in two areas, according to analysis of productivity before and during the 15-month trial by academics at the universities of Cambridge and Salford… The multi-year study of the trial involving about 450 desk staff plus refuse collectors found:
- Staff turnover fell by 39%, helping save £371,500 in a year, mostly on agency staff costs.
- Regular household planning applications were decided about a week and a half earlier.
- Approximately 15% more major planning application decisions were completed within the correct timescale, compared with before.
- The time taken to process changes to housing benefit and council tax benefit claims fell… Under the South Cambridgeshire trial, which began in January 2023 and ran to April 2024, staff were expected to carry out 100% of their work in 80% of the time for 100% of the pay. The full trial cut staff turnover by 39% and scores for employees’ physical and mental health, motivation and commitment all improved, the study showed. “Coupled with the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money that we have saved, improved recruitment and retention and positives around health and wellbeing, this brave and pioneering trial has clearly been a success,” said John Williams, the lead council member for resources…
Scores of private companies have already adopted the approach, with many finding it helps staff retention. Ryle said the South Cambridgeshire results “prove once and for all that a four-day week with no loss of pay absolutely can succeed in a local government setting”.
Unfortunately, for some “leaders” it won’t make any difference what the numbers say about 4 day work weeks.
I tried to get it implemented at a company that I co-founded, and despite presenting multiple studies showing that we would very likely save money and be more efficient, our CEO simply ignored them and kept repeating that a 4 day week wouldn’t be efficient. They had zero interest in what statistics and studies say; they’re the CEO and if their gut feeling says 4 days bad, then 4 days bad (and no their decision wasn’t due to them having information I didn’t have). I’ve heard similar stories from others.
Hopefully the results of this trial won’t just get ignored and forgotten.
Your competitors are willing to work 5 days.
The studies mean nothing, they’re all done in vacuums with government or very sheltered (or overfunded) companies.
It cannot work until it’s legislated (like the 40 hr work week was).
This old chestnut again.
It’s always some government department or tech company sitting on a pile of VC money.
Easy to make it work when the people were barely working in the first place, and with no competitive pressure.
Let’s see it at a construction project with a real deadline, or at a business in any kind of competitive industry.
Does anyone actually think that day 5 of a work week has a zero or even negative productivity value?
