Are charity organisations really moving to a 4 day week?

Over the last six months, there has been an ongoing trial on a four-day working week as opposed to the traditional five-day working week due to claims of the latter being categorised as an ‘outdated concept’. Read on to find out about the study finds and what this means for you. 

4 Day Week is a non-profit organisation that aims to achieve exactly as they are named – to establish a four-day working week. The organisation believes that the standard five-day week is an outdated concept and ‘no longer fit for purpose’. According to their studies, the UK works longer hours than most of Europe, and this in turn does not result in an increase in productivity, but an increase in stress, anxiety and burnout. Alongside 4 Day Week Global and 4 Day Week UK, the think tank Autonomy, as well as researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College also organised this trial, which is considered the world’s largest. The six-month trial ended just last week; however, the results will not be published until early next year, February 2023. 

A significant number of UK companies alongside various UK charities took part in this trial to test the concept to assess whether or not it would be more effective and essentially doable, this included one hundred percent of their usual salary with an 80 percent decrease in hours. There was a total of 73 companies in the trial across 30 different sectors, with 3,000 people being involved. It is reported that some companies have started implementing this, citing reasons such as ‘staff wellbeing’ and ‘increased efficiency’. Organisations such as Friends of the Earth, Royal Society of Biology and Debt Justice are just examples of some non-profit charity organisations that have put the trial into practice. The purpose of the shortening of the work week is to put into practice a better work life balance, and there have been reports of those involved in the study having a happier workplace with it creating an impact on the overall ‘business productivity and customer experience’.  

What does this mean for charities?  

As of right now, we are witnessing many organisations involved in the trial putting the concept into place, and other organisations especially in the charity sector applying this method for the betterment of the staff as well as their company. The full findings of the study will be released early next year, more accurately on February 2023.  

Could a 4-day week work for your organisation? 

Stress and burn-out are common within the charity sector, particularly around times of crisis or major campaigns. This leads to high rates of staff turnover, sick leave or referrals to occupational health services. Taking care of staff wellbeing will improve recruitment and retention rates and moving to a 4-day week can work for some charities. If you are considering this concept, consider carefully how this would work for frontline staff, shift workers, emergency lines and around the time of major campaigns such as Ramadan. However, it is worth remembering that managing working hours and the working year flexibly can bring huge rewards for employees and charities. Consulting staff, management and looking at your HR strategy can be the first steps to knowing if this could work for your workforce.

If you would like to know more about this can be implemented, HR leads please get in touch at [email protected]