"This Is the Future of Work Life"… Results of UK's Radical Experiment with '4 Days a Week at Work, Same Salary'?

The photo is not related to any specific expression in the article. [Image source=Pixabay]

[Asia Economy Reporter Sumi Hwang] Since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has become widespread and demands for work flexibility have increased, leading to more companies, especially in Europe, adopting new work systems. Among them, a UK-based company announced that after newly implementing a four-day workweek, employee and customer satisfaction increased, and productivity improved.

Bloomberg News reported this by citing a recent press release from the UK internet bank 'Atom Bank.'

Previously, Atom Bank started requiring all employees to work only four days a week from November last year. This initiative aimed to provide employees with opportunities to achieve work-life balance and to enhance corporate productivity. As a result, the weekly working hours for about 430 employees were reduced from 37.5 hours to 34 hours. Additionally, employees could choose either Monday or Friday as their day off. Despite this, salaries were not cut and remained the same as before.

The results were generally positive. According to data released by Atom Bank on this day, employee motivation increased during the four-day workweek period, leading to improved productivity. Furthermore, the number of lost workdays due to sick leave decreased from 100 days in November last year to 72 days in June this year. Job applications increased by 49% compared to a year ago, and the turnover rate decreased.

Customer service ratings also improved. According to the review site 'Trustpilot,' Atom Bank's rating increased from 4.54 out of 5 at the time of the four-day workweek introduction to 4.82 in June this year.

Regarding this, Anne-Marie Leister, Atom Bank's Chief People Officer (CPO), said, "Our company metrics and employee survey results confirmed that the four-day workweek does not have a negative impact." She added, "We firmly believe that the four-day workweek is the future of work life, and we hope more companies will transition to it after seeing our experience."

Meanwhile, since June, the UK has been conducting a large-scale four-day workweek experiment involving about 70 companies, including banks, investment firms, and hospitals. This was planned by the nonprofit organization '4 Day Week Global' and researchers from Oxford University, aiming to see if productivity and wages can be maintained while reducing working hours to 80%.

During the experiment, participants work only four days a week without any pay cuts. Researchers analyze the impact of the four-day workweek on productivity, work environment, and employee welfare. Based on the experiment results, companies will decide by the end of November whether to maintain this system.

Such experiments were previously conducted in Iceland. From 2015 to 2019, Iceland piloted a four-day workweek while maintaining the same wages. About 2,500 public sector workers participated in this experiment. The results showed that participants' productivity did not decline, and employee welfare improved.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.