100 Companies in UK switch to four-day working week with no pay cut
In the UK, 100 companies have agreed to implement a permanent four-day workweek for all employees without reducing pay. The 100 enterprises collectively employ just 2,600 people, but the 4 Day Week Campaign hopes they will be able to bring about a significant change in the country.
The five-day schedule, according to proponents of the four-day workweek, is a holdover from a previous economic era. According to The Guardian, they have suggested that a four-day workweek will encourage companies to boost productivity and do the same amount of work in less time. Early users of this policy also found it to be a very effective method of luring and keeping personnel.
Out of the 100 companies, Atom Bank and global marketing company Awin, which both employ about 450 people in the UK, are the two largest corporations in the country and have committed to adopting the four-day workweek. According to reports, they have received higher from the 4 Day Week Campaign, demonstrating that they have actually cut staff members’ working hours rather than just packing the same number of hours into fewer days.
Speaking to The Guardian, Awin’s chief executive Adam Ross said that switching to the new working pattern was “one of the most transformative initiatives we’ve seen in the history of the campaign”.
100 Companies in UK switch to four-day working week with no pay cut
“Over the course of the last year and a half, we have not only seen a tremendous increase in employee wellness and wellbeing but concurrently, our customer service and relations, as well as talent relations and retention also have benefited,” Mr Ross added.
According to the source, the 4 Day Week Campaign is also managing the largest working pattern pilot in the world, involving 70 companies and 3,300 workers. It is a trial including scientists from Boston University, the thinktank Autonomy, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, as well as other institutions.
