The six-month pilot project involves 3,300 workers spanning 70 companies, ranging from financial service providers to a fish and chips restaurant.
During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for work only 80% of their normal week, in exchange for a promise to maintain 100% of their productivity.
The program is run by the NGO 4 Day Week Global, Autonomy, a think tank and the 4 Day Week UK campaign in partnership with researchers from the University of Cambridge, Oxford University and Boston College.
Sienna O’Rourke, brand manager at Pressure Drop Brewing, an independent brewery in London, told CNN Business that the company’s biggest goal is to improve the mental health and well-being of its employees.
“The pandemic [has] “It makes us think a lot about work and how people organize their lives,” she said. “We do this to improve the lives of our staff and be part of a progressive change in the world.”
Given that the company manufactures and delivers products, workers have less flexibility about when and where they work, O’Rourke said. But all the difficulties in dealing with vacation and sick leave will be solved as a team.
So far, Iceland has conducted the largest pilot project for a shorter working week between 2015 and 2019, with 2,500 public sector employees taking part in two major trials. These studies did not find a corresponding decline in productivity among participants and a dramatic increase in employee well-being. Calls for a reduction in the working week have intensified in recent years in several countries. As millions of employees switched to telecommuting during the pandemic – reducing burdensome time and travel costs to work – calls for greater flexibility are growing.
Government-backed trials will take place in Spain and Scotland later this year, according to a 4-day week press release.
Joe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, said workers have shown they can work “shorter and smarter.”
“As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are realizing that the new frontier of competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour work focused on production is the means to give them a competitive advantage,” he said in a statement.
Researchers will measure the impact that the new work model will have on productivity levels, gender equality, the environment, and worker well-being.
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