In 2022, a highly publicised four day week trial in the UK featuring 61 companies and nearly 3,000 employees took place. At the time, despite its success, it was considered a fringe idea. Since then, we now hear consistently of governments and businesses across the world discussing and implementing a four day working week.
As more and more companies adopt the four day week, it seems clear that the future we’re heading for is one where three day weekends will become normalised – much like the two day weekend was one hundred years ago.
The four day week is a model where full-time work is reduced to a 32-hour working week (or less), worked over four days with no reduction in pay for workers. The process for implementing the change is now well documented. In this blog post, I’ll break down the policies that accompany the achievement of a four day week.
Contracts
During a trial period, employment contracts are almost always left as they are, and the four day week is seen as “gifted” to employees, often through a more informal opt-in agreement. The opt-in agreement is a form which is signed by staff before a trial takes place, declaring that they choose whether or not they would like to participate in the shorter working week. This would be separate and act as a supplement to employee contracts. Staff members could also choose to opt out at any point if they feel that it’s not working for them for whatever reason.
When making the decision to move permanently to a four day week, we recommend rewriting employment contracts to recognise the reduction in weekly hours and the new four day working pattern. However, another option is to leave contracts as they are and keep the four day week more informally in place through the opt-in agreement, which can be renewed every year.
Additionally, when adopting a four day week permanently, some organisations have pulled together a more generalised 4 Day Week Company Policy Document, encompassing all the HR changes that I outline below that come with the adoption of a four day week. In our experience, this can be helpful to set out further clarity, although not essential–particularly during a trial where most things can be covered temporarily by the opt-in agreement.
During a trial, the change is thus viewed as a temporary change to working hours. Then, following a review of the results after it’s finished, organisations can determine whether the four day week will be made policy. Here, if accepted permanently, it would be considered appropriate to change staff contracts.
Staff
Moving to a four day week will involve adapting some staff policies, for example, on TOIL, annual leave, bank holidays and part-time workers.
All staff members, full-time and part-time, can participate. If there’s no organisation-wide coordination, for example, Monday to Thursday for everyone, a rotating or flexible system could be introduced where staff members communicate their non-working day or hours to their team through a calendar so that everyone’s aware of people’s work patterns. You can implement core office hours if desired, i.e. when everybody is expected to be available for meetings (virtually or in-person), e.g. 10 am-3 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Most organisations like to take Fridays off, but some workers prefer Mondays, and some Wednesdays. It is possible for different departments within larger organisations to take different days off each week, rather than the whole organisation having to agree on one day. This may be essential where staff are working with people external to the organisation. It is also possible to spread different four day patterns between staff members. The key thing is finding the version of the practice that can best suit an organisation’s specific needs. There is no set way, but the version you decide to go ahead with should be written into the opt-in agreement.
If there are surge times (periods that are particularly busy and that represent spikes in activity) or important events/meetings scheduled for days when a team member isn’t supposed to be working, this is accommodated during surge periods (i.e. forward planning to work beyond the four day benchmark so there’s no need to work five days a week at the last minute). It may be necessary for team members to be flexible and work a five day week. If so, staff members who’ve worked an extra day can claim back time off in lieu (TOIL).
All TOIL requests should be discussed and agreed in line with your organisation’s usual decision-making process (e.g. a consensus process, line manager approval, etc.). During surge times, they can take TOIL for that fifth day worked (or extra 7 hours worked). Team meetings can be used as an opportunity to identify if there are obvious days in the coming months when the team needs to be working, so that staff can plan ahead.
An organisation can assess the progress of the four day week by personal monitoring and reflection, anonymous staff surveys, discussing personal objectives, check-in discussions, operational reports to the board and end review interviews – see the 4 Day Week Handbook for some example resources here.
If there is a significant issue with a particular staff member’s performance during the trial, organisations are encouraged to address this in line with their usual processes in order to figure out a solution which could include, for example, putting in more support for the staff member, reducing workload, or reverting hours back to a five day week. In general, staff will be encouraged to highlight early if they are facing any challenges and discuss these with their line manager to address them before issues arise.
With respect to part-time staff, the most important thing is to speak to everyone and come to a solution which works for as many part-timers as possible. Options include:
- Increasing the pay of staff working part-time
- Reduce the hours of part-time staff in line with reductions for full-time staff
- Adjust annual leave entitlement to recognise the large uplift created by a four day week
- Allow part-time staff to accrue extra days/time off when they work beyond the proportional equivalent of full-time staff
- A combination of the above
Holiday
It is fairly common that during a trial period, whether three months, six months or longer, holiday allowances stay the same.
It is also just as common for holiday allowances to be reduced in line with the overall reduction in working hours. For example, for those dropping down from a 40-hour five day week to a 32-hour four day week, they would see their holiday allowance reduced by 20%. Annual leave will be on a pro rata basis, i.e. staff will receive 80% of the normal annual leave quota (e.g. 20 days instead of 25 days). Again, this would need to be written into the opt-in agreement for a trial and then permanently reflected in new employment contracts once a decision has been taken to make the four day week permanent.
This is seen as a fair option given that workers will be getting an extra day off each week with no reduction in pay. When workers want to go away on holiday, they already have one extra day each week they don’t need to book off anymore.
For bank holidays, there are a number of different approaches depending on the organisation’s existing policy. There could, for example, be a policy in place where they (most commonly a Monday) are treated as the non-working day that week (switching from Friday). Other options are a three day week during bank holiday weeks or to add bank holidays to annual leave entitlement to allow staff to choose when to take them.
Planning for next steps
The best implementations of the four day week are well planned and involve a thorough consultation with staff beforehand. Implementation will need to be flexible and carefully calibrated. Most organisations opt for a trial first, rather than jumping straight into permanent adoption. We’ve found that the optimum amount of time to run a trial is six months, and the minimum amount of time is three months. Going for a trial first gives you sufficient space to tweak and adapt things as you go.
There is also a precedent for a four day week to be phased in over an 18-month period, which enables organisations to tackle challenges and adjust operations gradually in a smooth transition. In the first six months, the week is reduced to 4.5 days. In the six months after that, the week is reduced to a nine day fortnight with every other Friday off, and team rotation. In the final six months, there is a full trial before the permanent change is introduced.
Where we’ve seen it rolled out best in practice is when staff are empowered to take the lead on implementation. No one else knows their job better than the person doing that job, and empowering staff to be directly involved in planning for implementation tends to be the best approach. Staff should be consulted before implementation to tease out people’s hopes and fears.
Organisations can draw from existing decision-making policies here to support these processes, which are often initiated through a survey sent round to all staff – see the 4 Day Week Handbook for an example staff survey.
To go beyond sending round a survey, an all-staff meeting could be organised to discuss plans. There could also be smaller meetings organised involving line managers and whole department team meetings. Many organisations have emphasised the positivity and team cohesion generated by bringing together their team in this way.
Ultimately, whoever your decision makers are for a decision of this scale, collectivising the process of implementation has always been shown to improve the chance of success.
One of the most common fears among staff is the worry about being able to complete their work in four days rather than five. This almost always disappears once the four day week has been implemented, but it’s important to have these conversations beforehand to work out as a team if any steps can be put in place to mitigate these concerns.
There can be a danger of overthinking things. The point of doing a trial is to see what happens and make improvements along the way. You should never go into a trial expecting everything to work smoothly straight away.
For the best chance at achieving success when implementing the four day week, join the 4 Day Week Foundation’s National Pilot later this year. It features a well-curated line-up of workshops to help businesses most effectively adopt the practice and reap the benefits while getting ahead of the curve regarding the future of work.
By Sam Hunt, Business Network Coordinator at the 4 Day Week Foundation
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