What are the benefits and disadvantages of a 4-day work week?

UK workers can already request flexible working arrangements, and their employer must consider their request and provide grounds for refusal if the request is denied. However, the government has proposed that businesses consider a move to a four-day week, with employees working compressed hours. This would involve staff working their usual 32-40 hours over a four-day working week instead of the traditional five-day week.

There is an alternative approach that would see employees drop their fifth day without adding the working hours lost and reducing their hours overall. Importantly, this drop in hours wouldn't result in reduced pay. The idea is that a four-day working week would improve productivity to the extent that the business could pay the same amount in wages without experiencing decreasing profits.

The definition and approach businesses choose should consider the impact of a shorter working week on both the company and workers.

Many businesses have participated in the world's largest trial of a four-day working week and have reported numerous benefits. We'll discuss some of the most widely reported benefits here. Companies must take an individualised approach to introducing a shorter working week. Each business is unique. Switching to a four-day working week will likely involve a shift in business operations, management, and financial planning.

It's a good idea to use a trial period to identify the benefits and drawbacks for your business and consider changes needed to make four-day weeks a success.

Here are some of the main benefits of a four-day working week for businesses and employees.

Increased productivity levels

Productivity is vital to business success, and businesses may worry that reduced hours could lead to a drop in output. Potentially, this could mean companies prefer a four-day working week, where staff work compressed hours instead of a five-day week but without reduced working hours overall.

However, trials in Iceland found that productivity remained the same or improved, even where workers went from a 40-hour week to working 35 or 36 hours. The trial involved approximately 1% of Iceland's working population and is predicted to result in 86% of the country's workforce moving to a permanent four-day week or gaining the right to.

Various factors contribute to businesses' overall productivity, so companies must consider the whole picture before deciding whether to adopt a four-day working week.

Better work-life balance

Working fewer hours helps your team create a better work-life balance, giving workers more free leisure time with their families and friends. A four-day week gives staff a three-day weekend with more leisure time or a few hours to catch up on household tasks and essential life admin.

Each employee will likely have their own definition of a good work-life balance depending on their commitments outside work. Businesses must consider how to accommodate individual preferences in their flexible working strategy. Some people may prefer flexible working arrangements that let them work fewer hours but still spread them over a five-day week. This wouldn't be possible if a business decided to close the office one day per week unless their flexible working arrangements allow staff to work from home when the office is shut.

In trials, employees from participating companies reported that changing to a four-day week with reduced working hours positively impacted their work-life balance, giving them more time to spend with their loved ones, on hobbies and domestic tasks.

Well-being benefits

Employees found that when they changed to a four-day week, they benefited from improved work-life balance and reduced stress levels, which positively impacted their health. For some, a four-day week gave them an extra day to carry out errands that they would typically fit into their lunch break or complete household tasks that would otherwise eat into their free time at weekends.

Working fewer hours can help reduce stress, which has many health benefits. Excessive stress can negatively impact workers' mental health, causing emotional symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, or difficulty in making decisions. These issues can cause problems at work and in their personal lives. Stress can also affect workers' physical health, increasing their risk of high blood pressure, chest pains, headaches and stomach problems. A four-day week can potentially improve employees' health and offer business benefits such as reduced absenteeism and increased productivity, so it's a win-win.

Research shows that employees typically prioritised spending time with family and friends on their extra day when changing to a four-day week. This offers an additional benefit as social bonds support good mental health and stress reduction.

Improved employee recruitment and retention

Flexible working is a popular employee benefit; 57% of workers in a 2023 survey stated they'd value the opportunity to work flexibly. Flexible working lets employees create a better work-life balance with all its benefits.

Offering flexible hours or the option to work from home makes employers stand out, giving them an advantage when recruiting. Employees increasingly look for an employer whose values align with their own, meaning the option to switch to a four-day week and improve their work-life balance is an attractive benefit. If Government proposals mean every employer must offer a four-day week in the future, it's unclear whether that advantage will remain.

A focus on improving work-life balance also shows existing employees that their employer values them and their need to spend time away from work. Offering flexible working as a benefit can, therefore, aid employee engagement and retention, saving businesses time, effort, and money in recruiting new staff.

Reduced costs

A four-day week can help businesses and staff save money in various ways. Research suggests that businesses that switched to a four-day week in 2019 collectively saved around £92 billion per year, increasing to £104 billion by 2021. However, cost savings will likely depend on how businesses implement a four-day week and their employees' circumstances.

For example, companies that close their offices one day per week could reduce their energy bills. However, if they remain open five days a week and let employees decide which four days they work, this may not be the case. However, if fewer people are in the office at any one time, there may still be some small savings.

Cost savings also have environmental benefits. Analysis by the 4-day week campaign suggests that if businesses change to four-day weeks without reducing employee pay, they can reduce the UK's carbon footprint by 127 million tonnes per year by 2025, equivalent to taking 27 million cars off the road.

Benefits for employees include the ability to reduce their commuting and childcare costs. Employees who drive and pay to park near the office will significantly reduce commuting costs. However, this won't apply to train travellers as monthly or annual season tickets remain the same price whether they're used four or five days per week. However, most still represent a saving compared to buying individual tickets.

Finally, employees with children in a nursery can reduce their childcare bill by paying for four days instead of five.

Switching to a four-day week clearly has advantages. However, there are also some potential downsides. These vary between companies and depend on practical considerations and how businesses manage the four-day week.

Here are some of the potential pitfalls.

Difficulty managing workloads

Some businesses may struggle to manage workloads when switching to a four-day week. Engineering supplies company Allcap joined a six-month trial to see whether a four-day week would suit their business. While employees reported some benefits from their extra rest day, their work days became more intense as they didn't have another day to catch up. Heavier workloads meant employees were exhausted at the end of the four-day week and spent their extra day off recovering instead of enjoying their free time.

Management also found themselves taking on routine tasks when staff members were off, giving them less time to spend on higher-level management work and long-term projects. To counteract this, it's worth considering whether there are ways to streamline processes or invest in software to carry out routine analysis to free up managers' time.

If a business continues to operate five days a week but workers change to a four-day week, this will likely involve greater delegation between team members, which can increase workloads.

A business dealing with urgent or time-sensitive matters may also find its staff spending more time on fire-fighting tasks they're unfamiliar with, increasing workloads and stress levels. There are fewer opportunities for team collaboration as team members may not all be in the office at the same time. Organising team or department meetings becomes more challenging as they must take place when everyone is at work. Otherwise, staff risk missing out on important information or having to come to work on an off day, losing the benefits of a four-day week.

Increased risk of employee burnout

Employee burnout occurs when workers experience chronic workplace stress. As we've mentioned, some companies find their employees' workloads increase when they change to a four-day week.

If companies adopt a compressed hours approach, employees must work their normal hours in four days instead of five. For example, if they usually work 40 hours per week, that equates to an 8-hour day over five days but a 10-hour day during a four-day week.

Longer days can negatively affect employees' health, increasing their stress levels and risk of poor mental and physical health. Potential health issues include an increased risk of depression and anxiety, heart disease and high blood pressure. Studies have also found that stressed and exhausted workers are more likely to smoke, drink excessive amounts of alcohol and be physically inactive outside work.

Ultimately, this can impact their work quality and productivity. Companies should consider ways to provide resources that support employee health and wellness, such as business health insurance. However, this may not be sufficient to overcome the impact of a longer working day.

Less customer satisfaction

Not all businesses are suited to a switch from a five-day week to a four-day week. Businesses carrying out project-based work can likely adapt as long as they keep their customers updated on progress and when work will be completed. By contrast, a customer-facing business with regular opening hours may find itself losing customers. Customers could go elsewhere if they arrive at physical premises to find the doors closed. Alternatively, they will become frustrated at spending time waiting for someone to answer the phone when they have a query.

Research found that 75% of companies that hadn't implemented a four-day week worried about being less available for their customers. Businesses considering a change will likely need to consider peak demand times and set staffing levels accordingly.

Increased staffing costs

During the four-day week trial in the UK, some businesses found they needed to recruit additional staff to counteract increased workloads and reduce stress. Citizens Advice in Gateshead took part in the six-month trial and invested in recruiting additional staff, which equated to three full-time employees. Their call centre had fixed opening hours with high demand on Monday and Friday, meaning they must ensure the phone lines were open and adequately staffed to provide good customer service.

If businesses incur the additional expense of recruiting more staff, they will lose the cost-saving benefit of switching to a four-day week. Otherwise, they will increase their teams' existing workloads.

Greater difficulty managing family commitments

Flexible working arrangements typically allow staff to schedule their working days around their other commitments. A four-day week could still offer flexibility if staff can work from home some of the time or move their start and finish time forward or back to suit their caring responsibilities.

However, if they face longer hours because their employer decides to take a compressed hours approach, they lose these benefits and may find it harder to manage their family commitments. Most nurseries have fixed opening hours of 10-10.5 hours per day. This is fine for parents working an 8-hour day, but it is impractical if employers move to a four-day week with 10-hour days. Businesses may find themselves losing parents and those with caring responsibilities facing practical obstacles to their new working pattern.

Equally, longer hours may negatively impact work-life balance for parents even if childcare isn't a problem, as they reduce the time parents have available to spend with their children during the evening.

Restrictions on days off

The idea of a three-day weekend is appealing; it's one of the main reasons we all enjoy a bank holiday weekend. However, this isn't a practical option for many companies. We've mentioned that Citizens Advice in Gateshead faced high demand in their call centre on Monday and Friday and needed to recruit additional staff to ensure existing staff could participate in the trial.

However, they found that, in practice, staff couldn't take their day off on Monday or Friday because of the volume of calls. It's unclear whether managers enforced this or if staff chose to work on those days to avoid putting extra pressure on their colleagues. Whatever the reason, it meant that employees had to squeeze their time off into the remaining three days, so working patterns in the team as a whole weren't spread evenly throughout the week.

Potential inequality

Employers must be mindful of the impact on different groups of employees when implementing a four-day work week. We've mentioned the potential difficulties for working parents depending on how managers implement change. However, a business must also consider how changes affect minority groups such as neurodivergent staff.

Businesses may find a four-day work week practical in some areas of the company but less so in others. Without fixed opening hours or a customer-facing role, staff working behind the scenes can often work more flexibly. During the study, many participants reported increased productivity and improved results in areas suited to flexible working, such as warehouses or project teams. However, this wasn't replicated in call centres or shops.

These results mean employers may need to choose between offering a four-day work week to some employees or not offering it at all. A possible solution may be to make the four-day work week optional and let employees choose flexible working arrangements that meet their needs.

At Globacare, we help our clients find the right insurance products to support employees' health and well-being. If you'd like to learn more about how health insurance can support a 4-day week, contact us for tailored advice.