Weekend Read: Four is the new five as most workers push for four day week on same pay
Three in four UK office workers prefer a four-day working week over five days, while offered the same salary with the same amount of work needed, according to a new report shared exclusively with Morning Wire today.
Individuals and some businesses have embraced diverse flexible working models over the past two-years, giving rise to the view that a four day working week is a real possibility.
Big technology companies are paving the way, with the likes of Microsoft experimenting with a four-day working week. They have found that by implementing the shorter workweek led to a 40 per cent boost in productivity and creativity.
Now over half of UK workers believe productivity would increase if their organisation introduced a four day week, while one in three UK workers said it would stay the same, according to the ‘Changing behaviours of a flexible workforce in 2022 and beyond’ research, commissioned by Smart Locker Provider Velocity Smart Technology.
The team investigated how offices will change in 2022 and how business leaders can support more diverse and asynchronous working practices in order to keep pace with competition and retain employees.
“While there has been debate about the impact on productivity of flexible working over the past couple of years, employees are confident in their abilities to get the job done, even with a reduction in working days,” said Anthony Lamoureux, CEO of Velocity Smart Technology.
Lamoureux told Morning Wire today that “the four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are ‘at work’, to a sharper focus on the output being produced. Business leaders and IT directors need to ask themselves if they could get more from their teams in less time because they are better rested?”
“The launch of the four-day week pilot programme in the UK represents an exciting moment of change for employers and employees,” he continued,
“For a company to thrive in this new paradigm it needs to evolve the support provided to remote employees and ensure they’re equipped to give their all,” Lamoureux concluded.