By | ANI | www.thestatesman.com
In the United Kingdom, 61 organisations committed to a 20% reduction in working hours for all employees during a six-month period commencing in June 2022. Furthermore, the vast majority of enterprises maintained their full-time productivity targets.
Data from the world’s largest four-day working week trial show considerably lower rates of stress and illness in the workforce, with 71% of employees self-reporting lower levels of “burnout” and 39% indicating they were less anxious. There was a 65 per cent reduction in sick days, and a 57 per cent fall in the number of staff leaving participating companies, compared to the same period the previous year. Company revenue barely changed during the trial period – even increasing marginally by 1.4 per cent on average.
In a report of the findings presented to UK lawmakers, some 92 per cent of companies that took part in the UK pilot programme (56 out of 61) say they intend to continue with the four-day working week, with 18 companies confirming the change as permanent.
Research for the UK trials was conducted by a team of social scientists from the University of Cambridge, working with academics from Boston College in the US and the think tank Autonomy. The trial was organised by 4 Day Week Global in conjunction with the UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign.
