4-Day Workweek Major Study Released: It works!
Wall Street Journal, AP, NPR and other news outlets are covering the new results of studies on the Four-Day Workweek.
The Four-Day Workweek had quite a news cycle.
New research has been released showing how successful and popular the program is. 92% of companies who tried it, will keep using it, citing better morale, retention, and results.
Pretty amazing.
Here is the coverage from NPR. In this story, NPR rounds up a host of different opinions, but mostly rosy ones about the four-day workweek. One exciting part of the story was coverage of an Ernst and Young report from 2022 that 40% of C-suite executives have said they are already using a four-day workweek or are in the process of implementing it.
The Associated Press had one of the best headlines, “…shorter hours, happier employees.”
But the major piece was in the Wall Street Journal, which is a more conservative pro-management and pro-corporate outlet. Essentially, the report on the fact that most organizations who try the four-day workweek, want to continue. This means they must have been experiencing success – for their bottom line. The article says, “Firms saw productivity hold mostly steady and fewer employees quit.”
This isn’t just for nonprofits or just for businesses.
This week I was interviewed for a podcast by Gregory Nielsen, that will come out next week about the four-day workweek. I have a post on his blog today talking about the many benefits of implementation.
Benefits of implementing a Four-Day Workweek
1. A primary benefit is that you build loyalty. Workers become far more invested in the success of their employer when they see their employer taking care of them. The loyalty not only comes in the form of retention but also good will and saying good things about the organization publicly.
2. Another benefit is productivity. Most studies show that workers are as productive or more when they need to get their work squeezed into a shorter window, in exchange for getting more flexibility. (For more on these studies message me NonprofitFixer.com).
3. Morale is also a powerful benefit. Giving employees time to rest and recharge and spend more time with family or on hobbies or travel, makes them appreciate their job more.
4. But there are other possible benefits. If your employees are expected to work at a physical location, reducing the number of days that employees have to commute improves their lives immediately.
5. It reduces carbon emissions, soul-crushing commutes, energy costs at the office, and possibly car accidents. It may also reduce organizational expenses if you have a kitchen, coffee, or snacks that you provide to workers.
6. Another benefit of the four-day workweek, although we did not use it this way, is that it creates another tool for management in discussing raises and benefits.
As you can tell from all the data that keeps coming out about four-day workweek trials, the benefits are being felt across every industry. It may not work for every employer but I do think it’s worth looking into across most of the nonprofit sector.
Join us for my training on March 2, 2023. At this training we will cover the steps for implementation, the considerations you need to factor in, and the benefits. Check out the full blog post on how to implement the 4-Day Workweek here.
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