It can feel like conversations around the four day working week come around every few years or so, before fizzling out faster than sparklers on Bonfire Night. But the concept is enjoying a new boost, courtesy of the largest public sector trial of the idea in Britain to date.
South Cambridgeshire's council conducted a trial of a shorter working week, with successful results. It found that the move correlated with faster planning decisions, fewer refuse collectors quitting and faster call answering.
The experiment ran from January 2023 to April 2024, during which time the local-authority asked employees to carry out 100% of their work in 80% of the time for 100% of the pay.
South Cambridgeshire district council workers – comprising around 450 desk staff and more refuse collectors – experienced better performances in 11 out of 24 areas, little or no change in 11 areas and decreased performance in two areas, according to independent researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Salford, who examined the 15 months of the trial, adjusting for the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
What were the key improvements?
- Staff turnover reduced by 39%, saving £371,500 per year, mostly on agency staff costs, and there was a 53% rise in the average number of applications for roles
- Around% more major planning application decisions were completed within the allocated timeframes, and regular household planning applications were decided about a week and a half earlier
- The time taken to process changes to council tax and housing benefit claims was reduced
- After the trail was extended to waste services in September 2023, bin collection rates hit or exceeded the target of 99.7 per cent across nearly 130,000 residents in South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge
- By November 2023, the number of agency staff covering vacancies had decreased from 23 to nine, saving a projected £776,000
- Sickness rates fell by 33%, while employees reported marked improvements in mental and physical health
- Complaints to the council reduced by 2.5%
However, rent collection for council housing fell slightly – though this may have been due to the cost-of-living crisis – as did the speed at which empty council houses were relet, from 28 to 30 days on average.
How was the scheme criticised?
While it was live, the scheme came under fire from the district's former Conservative MP, Anthony Browne, who referred to the idea as an 'ideological crusade', with former local government minster Lee Rowley asking the council to 'voluntarily end your experiment with taxpayers' money immediately'.
Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, said to The Independent last year: 'Critics of the four-day week said it could never apply to blue collar workers but these very positive results prove it definitely can.
'The nine to five, five-day working week is outdated and no longer fit for purpose.'
Speaking to The Independent this week, he continued: 'Not only has work-life balance dramatically improved, but so has the performance of the council.
'With a more sympathetic Labour government now in place, there is a huge opportunity for councils and organisations across the public sector to start planning for a four-day working week.' In 2019, Labour under Jeremy Corbyn spoke of cutting the working week to 32 hours in its manifesto, but this year the party has said nothing facilitating a four-day work week.
John Williams, the lead council member for resources, said to The Guardian, 'Coupled with the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money that we have saved, this brave and pioneering trial has clearly been a success. We know we cannot compete on salary alone and have needed to find bold new ways of tackling our recruitment and retention issues.'
Jeff Membery, head of transformation, human resources and corporate services at South Cambridgeshire District Council, also said to The Independent: 'Overall the data shows that job retention has improved, recruitment has improved, health and wellbeing has improved, whilst performance has been at least maintained.'
Companies in countries such as Sweden, New Zealand and US have tried the four-day work week, finding it helps staff retention.
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Kate puts together fitness content that covers functional and strength training, cardio, workout challenges, interviews and news. She's often doing gym laundry or listening to music.
