Manufacturing Technology Centre rolls out four day week after trial boosts productivity
Coventry-based firm the Manufacturing Technology Centre has rolled out a four day working week for staff after a trial period was found to have boosted productivity.
The organisation, which aims to build technologies developed in academia, said that after conducting a two-year trial of flexible working with more than 600 of its staff, it would now be introducing the scheme to its entire 820-strong workforce, The Times first reported.
Half of staff in the trial period reported higher productivity and morale when they were able to choose how and when they worked, the firm said.
All staff would now be able to have a “fully flexible working week”, MTC told the Times, in which employees can agree with their team and line managers when they will complete 36 hours of work.
The scheme comes amid growing support for more flexible working practices, after the pandemic upended the traditional working day.
But MTC boss Dr Clive Hickman began the four-day trial before Covid lockdowns in a bid to recruit more staff amid a shortage of skilled workers.
“There are just not enough people out there and so we looked at what other fringe benefits we could offer. It can’t just be about raising pay,” he told The Times.
Not-for-profit group, 4 Day Week Global, is currently conducting the world’s biggest trial of a four-day week, with 70 firms and 3,300 workers taking part, monitored by researchers at Cambridge and Oxford universities and Boston College.