Thousands of UK workers start world's biggest trial of four-day work week

The world’s largest trial of a four-day work week begins this week and will continue for six months. The pilot is being trialed by 3,300 workers across 70 UK companies, and is based on the 100:80:100 model - 100 per cent of the pay for 80 per cent of the time, in exchange for a commitment to maintain 100 per cent of the productivity.

Chris Biggs, partner at consultancy and accounting disruptor Theta Global Advisors comments, “the decision to trial the four-day week marks the biggest shift we’ve ever seen towards achieving a better work-life balance across the country.

“It will be incredibly interesting to see what the results of the pilot are – but I expect that they’ll be positive and illustrate that there is real sense in this as a concept.”

This comes at a time when the UK labour market is navigating an acute stage of flux, as a landmark study by Theta Global Advisors unveiled that more than half (57 per cent) of Brits do not want to work in a traditional office environment, five days a week and putting in regular hours.

Furthermore, vacancies in the UK job market are at their highest point ever with redundancies at their lowest since the 90s, meaning there is a critical need for companies to retain staff.

One key way of achieving this is by offering flexible and forward-thinking working arrangements, with Theta Global Advisors’ research showing that 40 per cent of Brits believe working traditional hours in an office environment would hinder their performance.

Not only that, but a staggering 41 per cent of respondents even stated they are likely to consider leaving their jobs in the next year – clearly illustrating the retention challenges companies are currently facing.

The scheme comes after workers and companies were forced to re-examine their working patterns post-pandemic with a substantial rise in hybrid and flexible working hours.

However, big companies such as Deloitte and Goldman Sachs have been reluctant to fully adopt flexible work environments due to the fear of lowered productivity, until just recently. This was echoed in Theta’s research which found that for 24 per cent of Brits, their employers haven’t explored any flexible working options to help improve their work-life balance.

Goldman Sachs have been in conversations about making changes in this area for almost a year after a leaked report disclosed abusive working conditions among junior bankers, who were working averages as high as 105 hours a week.