February 19 2024

When five becomes four – does a shorter working week benefit rural areas?

Back in 2018 Autonomy, a research organisation, began working with charities, businesses and public organisations to deliver working time reduction pilots. Over the last five years, for many the prospect of a four-day week has been enticing. In 2022 4 Day Week Global published the results from a pilot with 33 companies across the United States and Ireland. Meanwhile, the results of the world’s biggest ever four-day working week pilot which took place in the UK were published in February 2023. People in the UK work some of the longest hours in Europe and yet our productivity lags behind. With the four-day week gaining traction, what does it mean for rural communities? Jessica Sellick investigates. ………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The five-day working week has been the norm in the United Kingdom (UK) since the first half of the twentieth century. While the Government introduced legislation to reduce working hours in factories and prescribed regular breaks; it was the result of a number of campaigns (by trade unions, employees, employers, religious bodies) from the 1840s onwards that created a groundswell for a more formalised break from the working week. Initially, this saw a shift from ‘Saint Monday’, where skilled artisan workers worked Tuesday-Saturday, to ‘rational recreation’, with people encouraged to undertake leisure activities on a Saturday afternoon (e.g. going to football matches, for countryside walks). With the adoption of the weekend left to individual employers, it took a further 50-years for it to gain widespread traction. By the end of the 19^th century there was a concerted effort to marking out Saturday afternoon and Sunday as the weekend – and this subsequently led to all-day Saturday and Sunday becoming a break for many employed workers. Much more recently, the introduction of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (in England, Scotland and Wales), means that an employee cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average – normally averaged over 17 weeks – unless they opt out or work in an area with exceptions (e.g. armed forces, emergency services).

Since then COVID-19 has led to significant changes to the way some people work, leading researchers at the New Economics Foundation and other commentators to call for shorter working time to be at the heart of post-pandemic recovery. Other drivers include artificial intelligence (AI) – with a study by Autonomy suggesting a four-day week (32 hours as full-time equivalent) could be achieved by 2033 for 8.8 million workers (28% of the workforce in Great Britain) – and climate change, with one study showing that a 10% reduction in hours is associated with an 8.6% fall in carbon footprint. What is a four-day week, and what does it mean for rural areas?

What is the four-day week? There is no one-size-fits-all approach to the four-day week. Models include a ‘condensed work week’ where organisations continue with their current 40-hour week and spread this over four-days with a 10-hour shift per day; or a ‘reduced work week’ where organisations reduce the week to 32 hours comprising 8 hour shifts per day over four-days. 4 Day Week Global, for example, calls for a ‘100-80-100’ model where workers receive 100% of their current pay, work 80% of their existing hours, and maintain 100% of their current productivity. Some organisations implement a ‘universal day off’ where the entire business suspends operations, while others have a ‘distributed day off’ where employees stagger their additional work day off. The four-day week is different from flexible working which is a way of working that suits an employee’s needs (e.g. having flexible start and finish times, or working from home).

There have been a number of reduced work week pilots running across the world in recent years – with 17 countries participating including Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United States and here in the UK. In addition to Government sponsored tests, many companies or municipalities have undertaken pilots of their own. These pilots are all at different stages, with some at the planning stage, some underway, and others being made permanent. What are some of the benefits and disadvantages of introducing a four-day week?

What are the benefits? Iceland was one of the first countries to trial a four-day week back in 2015. Participants included Reykjavík City Council and the national government (more than 2,500 workers, equating to 1% of Iceland’s working population); as well as preschools, offices, social service providers, and hospitals. Employees moved from a 40 hour week to a 35 or 36 hour week. Between 2015 and 2019 data shows that productivity remained the same or improved. Since then 86% of Iceland’s workforce have either moved to shorter hours for the same pay, or will gain the right to do so.

Back in July 2019 in Japan, Microsoft announced a four-day week trial. Staff were encouraged to work more efficiently in shorter hours by (i) reducing their standard meetings to 30 minutes; (ii) reducing the number of participants in a meeting to a maximum of 5 people; and/or (iii) using Microsoft Teams for collaboration in the first instance. While employees productivity increased by 40% it is unclear if the company will replicate the trial in other locations.

Between December 2020 and June 2022 New Zealand trialled a four-day week. This saw 80 employees at Unilever participate in a 100:80:100 model. Absenteeism dropped by 34%, employee stress levels reduced by 33% and work life conflict fell by 67%. In November 2023 Unilever announced it would be continuing the experiment in New Zealand and extending the trial to Australia. In Australia, a larger pilot involving 20 companies began in August 2022 and lasted six months. Employees worked 80% of their usual hours with no pay reduction. 64% of employees experienced reductions in burnout and 38% felt less stressed with the four-day week. Time spent commuting reduced by 36 minutes per person during the trial.

In February 2023 the results of the UK pilot were published. This involved 61 companies and 2,900 workers trialling a four-day working week between June and December 2022. The companies included those in the marketing/advertising sector (18%), followed by professional services (16%) and charities/not-for-profits (11%). Companies applied one of five models: (1) fifth day stoppage – where the company shut down operations for one additional day a week; (2) Staggered – where staff take alternating days off; (3) decentralised – where different departments operate different work patterns; (4) annualised – where staff work a 32-hour average working week calculated on the scale of a year; or (5) conditional – staff entitlement to the four-day week is tied to ongoing performance monitoring.

The findings of the UK pilot include:

71% of employees participating reported lower levels of burnout, and 39% said they were less stressed, compared to at the start of the trial. Levels of anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues decreased, and mental and physical health improved.
When employees were asked how they used their additional time off, the most popular response was ‘life admin’ (i.e., tasks such as shopping or household chores). Employees described how this allowed them to have a proper break for leisure activities on Saturdays and Sundays. Some parents with young children highlighted a reduction in childcare expenses. All reported being able to do more of the activities they enjoyed during the pilot – with some developing new hobbies and interests.
54% of employees said they felt increasingly able to combine paid work with caring responsibilities, and 62% reported it easier to combine work with social life.
Researchers found a 65% reduction in sick days, and a 57% drop in the number of staff leaving when comparing the trial period with the same period in the previous year.
Company revenue barely changed – and increased by an average of 1.4% for the 23 organisations able to provide data.
15% of employees said that no amount of money would induce them to accept a five-day schedule over a four-day week.
56 of the 61 companies said they intended to continue the four-day working week, with 18 companies confirming they had made the change permanent.

In Canada researchers looked at data from July 2022 to June 2023 for 30 companies employing 3,500 workers. Each company applied a four-day 32-hour work week, or a 40-hour work week over four-days, and workers did not get a pay reduction under either model. 90% of workers said their productivity had either increased or stayed the same, and 93% wanted to continue with their shortened and compressed work schedules indefinitely.

In May 2023, Ireland commenced its second four-day week pilot, based on the 100-80-100 model. It follows an initial pilot with 12 companies in 2022 none of whom returned to a five-day working week.

Across all these countries, 4-Day Week Global have highlighted some of the overarching benefits of a four-day week for employees and employers:

Employees involved in pilots report a reduction in burnout.
Employees report an increase in work ability.
Employers find it easier to recruit staff.
Employee resignations decline.
Some companies see an increase in revenue compared to the same period before the pilot began.

What are the costs? Not every employee or employer has embraced a four-day week, citing concerns around how it is:

Too rigid an approach when greater flexibility is required in the workplace.
Not suitable for all workers in all sectors (e.g. some roles in health, care, defence, banking or criminal justice).
Exacerbating some of the challenges employees who are already stretched with their existing workload face.
Leaving companies with less time to work on organisational development or strategic planning as they focus on day-to-day operations.

Some of this is borne out of evidence in the UK. The four-day week trial did not work for every business – with some firms exiting the trial early and others yet to move all their operations to the format full-time. For example, Allcap, an engineering and industrial supplies company, participated in the pilot because they wanted to give 40 employees across 5 sites extra rest days. A full order book and reduced headcount meant all employees were offered one work day off every fortnight instead of a four-day week. Allcap found employees experienced 9 extreme days as opposed to 10 normal workdays and finding cover for employees on rest days was also a struggle. This led Allcap to suspend the trial at 3 of its 5 sites 2-months early. Similarly, Waterwise found staff experienced more stress trying to fit work into fewer days in order to have a longer weekend, and the charity had to focus on doing daily tasks rather than longer-term projects or strategic work. Citizens Advice Gateshead appointed the equivalent of 3 additional full-time employees so 45 contact centre staff could participate in a trial. As the busiest days at the contact centre tend to be Mondays and Fridays it only left staff with three week days to take their day off. While the pilot exceeded expectations in terms of its benefit to other staff at Citizens Advice Gateshead, if the four-day week cannot work across the whole charity, including the contact centre team, it is unlikely to become permanent and the trial is being extended in the meantime before a permanent decision is made.

More recently, the supermarket chain Morrisons made changes to its four-day week for head office staff. Originally implemented in 2020, staff were scheduled to work 13 Saturdays per year (one Saturday every 4-weeks) but following feedback from staff the supermarket will spread their 37.5 hours over four-and-a-half days a week, dropping the weekend working.

Legally, most employment legislation is concentrated around a five-day working week. While employers involved in pilots have made operational changes to staff terms and conditions, not all have made changes to employee contracts. This not only has implications for employees terms and conditions, but also to their pension arrangements and the accrual of leave.

In October 2023 the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) published guidance for Local Authorities in England to consider in adopting a four-day week where staff have their working hours reduced by 20% but retain 100% of their pay. While the Government supports an individual’s right to request flexible working, it does not support a four-day working week in Local Authorities because it does not believe that it delivers local taxpayers’ value-for-money.

What does it mean for rural communities? There is no evidence base documenting how widespread the four-day week is in rural areas in England. There are examples of rural organisations piloting a four-day week. For example, South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) has been trialling a four-day week since January 2023 to help them attract and keep colleagues, to fill vacant posts rather than relying on more expensive agency staff, and to reduce costs. The Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge independently reviewed the trial after 3-months. Researchers looked at different service areas such as planning, housing, corporate services and finance. They found 9 out of the 16 service areas showed substantial improvement, and the remaining 7 areas were either at similar levels or saw a slight decline.

There are calls from other sectors to implement a four-day week to boost workforce recruitment and retention, particularly in rural areas (e.g. health, hospitality and catering, logistics). Indeed Agricultural Recruitment Specialists have looked at whether the four-day week is beneficial for the farming industry. While noting that farming is different from corporate jobs (e.g. dependency on nature/weather, livestock and crops need looking after 365 days a year), technological advancements, automation and drones are reducing the amount of manual labour needed on farms. With many farmers working an average of 65 hours a week, and 40% of farmers surveyed by Farmers Weekly wanting to know how to improve their work-life balance, Agricultural Recruitment Specialists suggest the four-day week could be an asset to the farming world.

Information from other countries suggests the four-day week is being adopted in rural municipalities. In Canada for example, Ontario municipalities that have permanently moved to a ‘compressed’ work week (10 hour days four-days a week to recruit and retain staff) include Aylmer, Zorra, Springwater and French River. Four-day work week trials have also taken place in Merritt (British Columbia), Saint John (New Brunswick) and in the District of Guysborough in Nova Scotia.

In the United States 2,100 rural schools in 26 states are taking Mondays or Fridays off to help recruit more teachers, save money and boost pupil attendance. Some schools have reported that teacher applications have increased four-fold and overhead costs decreased since the four-day week began while others are monitoring what impact this is having on pupil attainment – with some studies indicating that high achievers are more affected by changing school schedules than lower-achieving pupils; and other studies suggesting that a four-day week is not compromising academic performance. Research has also shown that parents with younger school age children, with children who are receiving special educational needs provision or free school meals were less supportive of a four-day week compared to other cohorts of parents/carers.

Back in the UK, in December 2023 civil servants at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), with support from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), submitted a petition calling for a four-day week pilot scheme for 21,000 employees. In response, and echoing guidance issued by DLUHC, a Government spokesperson confirmed how “there are no plans for this. Value-for-money should be provided to the taxpayer”.

Where next? In February 2022 the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales published a report on the four-day week from Autonomy. This considered the arguments for and against a shorter working week, the potential barriers the Welsh Government might face and an implementation strategy. There are calls for a pilot to be developed in the devolved public sector and the Welsh Government is working with the Workforce Partnership Council (WPC) and trade unions to look at the issue in more detail. In Scotland the Government formally launched its 4-day week pilot in January 2024 – with around 140 staff at South of Scotland enterprise doing a 32-hour week without loss of pay. In Northern Ireland a study by Hays found 43% of employers would be more likely to consider offering a four-day week if staff spent all of their work days in the office rather than on a hybrid basis.

The key question is whether people who move to a four-day week can achieve what they were doing over five-days with fewer hours and less time? The results of the pilots are in and they suggest a four-day week is coming (in Wales), starting (in Scotland) and here to stay (in England). Are four-day weeks a good or a bad thing? And how doable are they in rural areas? The evidence so far suggests it may work well for some and never work for others. Watch this space…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Jessica is a project manager at Rose Regeneration and a senior research fellow at The National Centre for Rural Health and Care (NCRHC). She is currently evaluating a service that supports older people to maintain their independence; and reviewing neighbourhood based initiatives (NBI). Jessica also sits on the board of a charity supporting rural communities across Cambridgeshire.

She can be contacted by email jessica.sellick@roseregeneration.co.uk.

Website: http://roseregeneration.co.uk/https://www.ncrhc.org/

Blog: http://ruralwords.co.uk/

Twitter: @RoseRegen