Workplace Flexibility: Promising Research Supports a 4-Day Work Week

As employers and employees alike search for better ways to work, many are rethinking the concept of the workweek entirely. Workplace flexibility is a huge talking point in the current climate, with 58% of employees admitting to preferring a 4-day workweek over a pay raise.

A recent bill in California even proposed switching the state over to a 32-hour workweek. Although it was stalled, it’s just one example in a long list of countries and companies testing out or implementing the four-day workweek. Others include Iceland, Sweden, Scotland, Microsoft Japan, Kickstarter, and many more.

The bottom line? Flexible work policies come with many positives, such as higher company and worker productivity, lower turnover, and better work-life balance. But there’s more to making the switch from five working days to four than simply adjusting your company calendar.

To help you decide if a four-day workweek could work for your organization, we’ll discuss different examples of what this can look like for you and your employees. We’ll also explore the benefits of a four-day workweek, and the possible downsides to prepare for.

What Does a 4-Day Workweek Look like?

There are two ways to look at the four-day workweek: as a compressed workweek and a shortened workweek. Understanding the difference between the two is crucial to helping you choose a suitable solution should you decide to implement this type of workplace flexibility.

Compressed Workweek

This approach takes the usual 40 total hours normally worked over the five-day workweek and compresses them into four 10-hour workdays. Employees do the same work, but now they do it during slightly longer days.

Here are some examples of this kind of four-day week:

• Bolt: This popular transportation and food delivery platform introduced a 4-day workweek in 2022. Employees still receive full pay, working four consecutive days each week while taking the fifth day off. The aim is to improve work-life balance and productivity.

• Elephant Ventures: This small New York-based software company switched to a compressed schedule as a response to the stresses of the pandemic. Now employees have longer spans of time for deep, focused work.

Shortened Workweek

Like California’s proposed 32-hour workweek, this approach cuts back work hours while keeping pay the same (in most cases). This is referred to as the 100:80:100 model, where employees receive 100% of their pay and work 80% of their time. The most important part of this exchange, however, is that employees need to give 100% productivity.

In terms of what a shortened workweek looks like on the ground, there’s no real rule as to how much shorter the week has to be. As you’ll see from the examples below, there are about as many ways to shorten a workweek into compressed work schedules as there are companies.

What Are the Advantages of a 4-Day Workweek?

More Flexibility and Better Work-Life Balance

The added flexibility and work-life balance of a four-day workweek are by far the most important benefits for employees. The extra day gives workers a chance to get more rest and engage in life improving activities like exercise. In a 2023 survey, 71% of employees reported lower levels of burnout. Less burnout also leads to fewer sick days taken by employees, evidenced in research showing a 67% drop in absenteeism after a company with 3000 workers switched to a 4-day work week.

In previous years, the Great Resignation suggested people were dissatisfied with their work arrangements for reasons like needing a mental health break, better and work-life balance, and flexibility.

However, in more recent years, studies show that employee happiness at work is rising—with industries such as construction, travel and hospitality and finance reportedly having the happiest employees. Workplace flexibility and the introduction of shorter workweek could be a contributing factor to this.

Having one additional day off a week (3-day weekend) or shorter workdays can bring many benefits—like giving employees time to handle personal obligations like caring for children or tending to their health. It also allows them to do things they care about, like their hobbies or involving themselves in their community. This results in happier, better-rested employees, as many employers have found.

Example #1: Perpetual Guardian, NZ

Perpetual Guardian,  the New Zealand-based estate planning company, switched to a four-day workweek in 2018. Here is what they found when they compared data from before and after the switch.

• Better work-life balance:  Just 54% of employees felt they managed work and non-work roles well in 2017. After the company switched to a four-day workweek, this went up to 78%.
• Lower stress:  Even though employees had less time to do the same amount of work, the number of people who felt stressed at work went down from 45% to 38%.
• Higher employee satisfaction across the board:  Overall, staff reported feeling more satisfied in several aspects of their personal lives, including:
• Life in general: Up 5%
• Personal health: Up 7%
• Leisure time: Up 11%
• Involvement with the local community: Up 7%.

Example #2: Iceland

Iceland ran a test to understand the benefits of a shortened workweek, including a broad range of workplaces, including:

• Schools
• Museums
• Government offices
• A police station
• A hospital’s internal medicine department
• Even the mayor of Reykjavík’s own office.

Rather than switching to a formal four-day workweek, these trials cut working hours from 40 hours per week to 35 or 36 (with pay remaining the same). The benefits participants found in working fewer hours showcase how much better people’s lives can be with less time at work and more flexibility.

Here are the benefits cited by participants:

• Being able to run errands more easily, allowing them to spend more time with loved ones
• Having men take the initiative more often with household chores (in heterosexual couples)
• Having more time to do things for themselves, like spending time on hobbies or picking children up from school
• Being less stressed at home
• Helping single parents spend more time with their children
• Tightening social connections more widely, as people had more time to spend together

While these are all wonderful benefits, businesses still need to meet deadlines, service customers, and get work done. The good news is that shorter hours doesn’t mean that employees get less work done. In fact, research shows quite the opposite is true.

Employees Are More Productive and Businesses Are More Efficient

It’s sometimes shocking to realize how much time we waste at work. However, most of this is often due to inefficiencies and mismanagement rather than “employee laziness.” In fact, the average US employee wastes 7.5 hours each week on social media, and 50 hours a year on menial tasks.

So, what are team members doing with the rest of their workday? Well, this can vary depending on the job, but common tasks include:

1. Attending meetings
2. Fixing problems they didn’t cause
3. Administrative work
4. Responding to emails
5. Dealing with customer issues

In fact, a study by Atlassian suggested that meetings can be the number one barrier to productivity—with 78% of people saying they’re expected to attend so many meetings, it’s hard to get their work done.

This goes a long way in explaining how businesses can increase workweek productivity, by getting rid of unnecessary tasks and reducing or compressing work hours. It’s just a matter of working smarter, not harder.

Boosted Productivity Leads To Better Quality Work and Reduced Costs

A UK trial in 2022 featuring 73 companies and 3,300 employees displayed some of the positive impacts 4-day work weeks can have on productivity.

Workers did four days’ work for five days’ pay and nearly half of respondents said productivity improved either slightly or significantly—with 86% of participants saying they would continue with a four-day work week after the study.

How Individual Companies Become More Productive and Efficient

Other companies who have tested or switched to a four-day workweek also report gains in workweek productivity:

• Exos, a US coaching company with over 3,000 employees worldwide, trialed a four-day work week for six months. They introduced “You Do You Fridays” where workers can take time off, catch up on work or just the leisure time as needed. For salaried staff, there is no change in pay, while hourly-paid staff could choose between working 32 and 40 hours during the four-day week based on their preference and arrangement with their manager. Results revealed a 91% increase in productivity and an impressive 211% rise in business performance.

• In an internal survey,  91% of Buffer employees said they’re   happier and more productive  since the change to a 32-hour workweek.

• Software company Bolt likewise cited high productivity and satisfaction after testing a four-day workweek, which they’ve decided to make permanent.

• • 94% of employees said they wanted to keep the shortened workweek
  • 86% of employees said they were more efficient with their time
  • 87% of managers said their team maintained the same productivity and service levels

• The Wanderlust Group, a U.S.-based outdoor tech company, reported significant growth and business success since switching to a four-day workweek, including:
  • Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): 99% growth year-over-year (YoY)
  • Nights booked through their marketplace (YTD): 120% growth YoY
  • NPS: 75 on more than 60,000 responses.

These satisfaction, productivity, and efficiency gains for companies and their employees contribute to growing the employer brand. Plus, they’re a real boon to recruiters vying for the best candidates.

Businesses Can Better Recruit Top Talent and Increase Employee Retention with a 4-Day Workweek

People are tired of work dominating their lives, which is why the four-day workweek is so popular among workers and job seekers. In a 2022 Qualtrics survey, 92% of employees said they’d welcome a switch to a four-day workweek at their company.

They also recognized the value of a four-day workweek in creating a more appealing workplace. Just over 80% said that a four-day workweek would make them feel more loyal to their employer and help their company recruit talent.

As the growing research challenges the efficacy of traditional 40-hour, five-day workweeks, it’s important to remember that—for employees—the appeal of the four-day workweek isn’t just about working less. Working less makes work  more  purposeful, healthy, and efficient.

In the same Qualtrics survey:

• 82% of employees said that a four-day workweek would make them more productive
• 88% said it would improve their work-life balance
• 79% said it would improve their mental health.

Again, this isn’t just employee perception. Almost all (83%) of businesses found it easier to attract talent since introducing shorter weeks.

Employers could also attract interest from a wider range of prospective employees, from parents and carers to staff of different age ranges.

When the word gets out that a company has changed to a four-day workweek, the response can be astounding. This was the case for the Wanderlust Group. Since they made the switch in 2021, job applications have risen a whopping 800%. Additionally, their employee retention rate is 98% – proof that a four-day workweek is more than just a gimmick to get people in the door. It keeps them there.

What Are the Disadvantages of a Four-Day Workweek?

The 4-Day Workweek Has a Bad Rap

Despite all the positive evidence that supports a four-day workweek, its biggest disadvantage is that some people have negative preconceptions about it. While managers and leaders seem to be the most skeptical, even employees worry that a four-day workweek would negatively affect certain aspects of business success.

According to a recent Qualtrics survey:

• 40% of individual contributors, 46% of managers, and 53% of senior leaders think a shorter workweek would have a negative impact on sales and revenue.
• 29% of individual contributors, 40% of managers, and 48% of senior leaders think employees would slack off.

Employers also fear the repercussions a four-day workweek will have on customer service. For example, customers may not be able to access assistance for three days instead of two. However, this can be aided by effective communication, access to online resources and the implementation of AI solutions. According to Salesforce, 63% of service professionals believe AI could help them serve customers faster.

Even though these fears aren’t validated by available evidence, this bias could pose a problem for those trying to introduce the new structure in their workplace. Whether you’re pitching to executives or employees, you need to come prepared with concrete evidence to convince them of the benefits.

Offering a Four-Day Workweek Doesn’t Guarantee People Will Use It

Without the right culture of trust, companies with 4-day work weeks could be in jeopardy from the start. People need to feel that everyone—including both leadership and coworkers—is committed to making it a success. If not, it has the potential to turn into another benefit that looks nice on the company website, but isn’t actually used.

People’s fears about how they’re perceived at work can also make them reluctant to take advantage of a shortened workweek, even when they think it’s a good idea.

• In a survey by Deloitte, almost all (94%) respondents agreed they’d benefit from workplace flexibility.
• However, close to 30% said they wouldn’t use flexible work options  even if they were offered  because of the “potential consequences to their professional growth and lack of trust from leadership”.

Likewise, without team-level support, a four-day workweek could increase employees’ stress rather than relieve it. These issues have more to do with the existing workplace culture than problems related to a four-day workweek.

Nevertheless, an existing bias against the structure—whether in expected business outcomes or expected behaviors—can become a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. This could then lead to additional resistance to the new workweek.

Employee surveys can be helpful indicators of people’s willingness to switch to a four-day workweek. However, it’s important to remember that Likert-scale responses are only the first step to understanding employees’ motivations and uncovering their concerns.

As with any major organizational change, you need to provide the right support, help employees feel heard, and improve your workplace culture if you want people to embrace change.

Certain Industries Might See an Increase in Costs

The majority of companies are determined to drive down operating costs—while tackling supply chain disruptions, inflation, reawakened consumer demands, rising energy prices, and more. Adding more labor costs on top of it all is unlikely to be an attractive proposition, and there is some evidence that a four-day workweek would do so in certain instances and with mixed results.

Example #1: Citizens Advice Gateshead, UK

Alison Dunn, chief executive of consumer-advice helpline Citizens Advice in Gateshead, UK revealed that a four day work week trial can cause additional staffing costs for customer-facing businesses.

Those in contact center roles have set opening hours and strict KPIs. In order to take part in the trial, the business had to spend money on hiring three extra members of staff to cover the time. Workplace flexibility was also limited as Mondays and Fridays are the department’s busiest days, so workers were restricted to having the extra day off on the three remaining days.

Example #2: Maaemo Restaurant, Norway

Similarly, the food service industry has higher than normal turnover and burnout rates. This places even more importance on having a solid employee retention strategy and providing an especially positive employee experience. Maaemo, the Norwegian restaurant with the three-day workweek, sacrificed profitability in favor of both, with the owner concluding: “I'm fine with us just breaking even.”

These examples may not lend themselves to easy comparisons to other industries or private businesses, but they point to possible trade-offs that organizations need to consider with a four-day workweek.

Is a 4-Day Workweek Suitable for My Business?

Before trialing a four-day workweek, you may want to consider the following for your specific business and industry:

• Are you currently measuring turnover costs, especially when employees leave due to a lack of scheduling flexibility?
• Will the qualitative benefits of switching to a shorter workweek outweigh the possible financial costs (or vice versa)?
• With more productivity, can added costs (e.g., additional staff or materials) even out in the long term? For example:

• • Would shorter workweeks cut back on unsolicited overtime hours?
  • How could increased employee retention and recruiting power save on your HR costs?
  • With increased employee satisfaction, would hiring more staff result in better customer service?
  • Would shortening hours result in fewer workplace accidents?

The 4-Day Workweek is More Than Just Hype

Love it or hate it, many companies have taken the plunge into the world of four-day workweeks, and they’re not looking back. Looking at the benefits, it’s easy to see why—happier, more productive employees with more time to spend simply living their lives.

But even if the cons of a four-day workweek seem to outweigh the pros for your organization, finding ways to employ the basic principles can help increase employee satisfaction and retention. For example, you can:

• Find other ways to offer more scheduling and workplace flexibility
• Provide more paid days off
• Increase efficiency by reducing busywork and meetings
• Think creatively about how to support a better work-life balance.