"I Want to Work Four Days a Week"...Applicants Flock to UK Companies Experimenting with Four-Day Workweek

Job Inquiries Surge by 534%
Working Hours Reduced by 20% but Productivity and Wages Maintained at 100% During Verification Process

Interest is growing among job applicants in companies participating in the UK's "4-day workweek without wage cuts" experiment. Photo by Pixabay [Image source=Pixabay]

[Asia Economy Culture Young Intern Reporter] Job applicants are flocking to companies participating in the "4-day workweek without wage cuts" experiment currently underway in the UK.

According to the US CNBC broadcast on the 18th (local time), despite the severe labor shortage with the number of job openings in the UK reaching an all-time high earlier this year, companies experimenting with the 4-day workweek reported significant effects in personnel management, including new hires and employee retention.

Environmental consulting firm "Tyler Grange" stated that visitors to their recruitment site increased by 60% after introducing the 4-day workweek, and inquiries about job openings surged by 534%. Helen Britton, the company's HR manager, said the interest from job applicants following the introduction of the 4-day workweek was astonishing.

Communication consulting firm "Story Mob" also explained that they were able to fill long-vacant positions after adopting the 4-day workweek and felt the strong interest from job applicants in the 4-day workweek.

Education company "Bedrock Learning" introduced that since adopting the 4-day workweek, only one employee has resigned, job applications have greatly increased, and the turnover rate of existing employees has significantly decreased. Marketing firm "Loud Mouth Media" also said that after introducing the 4-day workweek, the number of job applicants doubled, and the retention rate rose from the previous 80% to 98%.

The UK's 4-day workweek experiment was planned by the nonprofit organization "4 Day Week Global" along with researchers from Oxford, Cambridge, and Boston universities. The experiment, which began in June with about 70 companies participating in the UK, aims to verify whether working hours can be reduced by 20% while maintaining productivity and wages at 100%.

"4 Day Week Global" has also launched 4-day workweek experiments in Australia and New Zealand and plans to start experiments in the US, Canada, Europe, and South Africa between this year and next year.

Meanwhile, cases of Korean companies adopting the 4-day workweek are increasing. With the activation of remote work due to COVID-19 and the rise of workers valuing work-life balance, the 4-day workweek is being implemented mainly by large companies such as Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baedal Minjok, Kakao Games, and SK Telecom.

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