Trial of 4-day workweek shows positive results: report

Cambridge, England — A recent trial of four-day workweeks at a municipal government office in England shows that 22 of the 24 key performance indicators tracked improved or remained the same.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Salford studied the effects of a four-day workweek schedule at the South Cambridgeshire Council. Workers’ pay wasn’t reduced during the 15-month trial. 

Eleven of the KPIs showed improvements, including:

• Percentage of calls to the council’s Contact Center answered.
• The percentage of complaints responded to within a prescribed time period.
• The percentage of emergency repairs to council homes completed within 24 hours.
• Major planning application decisions made in time.
• Smaller planning application decisions made in time.
• Invoices paid by the council within 30 days.

“These results are supportive of moves to reduce the length of the working week but are not a surprise,” Brendan Burchell, a sociology professor at Cambridge, said in a press release. “In the past two years, other researchers have studied many private sector employers in the UK and elsewhere that also reported the company’s performance was maintained after a 20% reduction in hours of work; employees and managers can find better ways of doing things to work more efficiently, given the right guidance and motivation.”