How’s it going for companies trying 4-day workweeks?

Cambridge, England — Nearly 90% of companies that participated in a four-day workweek pilot program have continued with that schedule a year later, a follow-up from research organization Autonomy has found.

Conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Salford and Boston College, the pilot comprised 61 organizations. Of them, 54 are still using the four-day workweek, and 31 have made the change permanent. 

All the managers and CEOs of the companies said the four-day workweek had a “positive” or “very positive” impact on their organizations. Around 82% reported positive effects on employee well-being, about half observed reduced employee turnover and 32% experienced improved recruitment.

A separate follow-up survey of employees from 47 of the companies one year later shows reductions in burnout, better work-life balance and greater life satisfaction.

“Interviews revealed the many positive initiatives and strategies that organizations have used to maintain their four-day week policies, including revising the norms around meetings, communications, work prioritization and more,” an Autonomy press release states. “Interviews also suggested that staff in organizations where the additional day off was only weakly guaranteed (or conditional on meeting certain targets) had some concerns about the policy.” The employees were able to use that extra time to focus on caring for family members and others, hobbies, or household chores.

“The one-year results are excellent,” Boston College sociology professor Julie Schor said in the release. “Overall results have held and, in some cases, have even continued to improve. Physical and mental health and work-life balance are significantly better than at six months. Burnout and life satisfaction improvements held steady. Job satisfaction and sleep problems nudged down a bit, but the bulk of the original improvement remains.

“The key point is that the strong findings at six months are not due to novelty or short-term impacts. These effects are real and long-lasting.”