On Monday 6th June 2022, a pilot programme kickstarted in the UK for participating organisations trialling a four-day working week.
Employees taking part in the trial will have no loss of pay during this period for working 80% of their usual working hours. They are however expected to maintain their usual level of productivity within the reduced hours.
The trial will run for six months and is being closely monitored and coordinated. There are over 3300 workers from 70+ businesses from a wide range of industries throughout the UK. Similar trials are also being undertaken in other countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
The purpose of the trial is to understand productivity levels, how workers have responded to the reduced hours and how it has affected their wellbeing, their job satisfaction, and their work/life balance, and whether there are variances in the type of role they undertake and if there are any differences between the genders or age groups.
The data gathered during this programme could help to map out future flexible working patterns and what effect it would have on the business, current processes and whether new employment policies would need to be implemented to manage employees working a 4-day week.
KCA are eagerly keeping an eye on this trial and when more information on the outcome is available, we will report further. In the meantime, if you are looking at introducing flexible working for your employees, then do call us for help and advice.