involving about 3,000 employees at 61 companies was largely successful. The trial, which was conducted partly by researchers at Boston College, found that employee well-being went up while company revenue was not significantly affected. Other similar pilot programs have found a four-day week can reduce absenteeism and staff turnover.Before making the decision, we planned it out in great detail to remove the risk of the policy backfiring.
And guess what happened? Employees were very receptive, of course. And at first, there was no measurable deterioration in productivity, either. So what does that tell us? I believe there’s some buffer in just about every company. I don’t believe staff members are lazy. But perhaps having fewer hours in the workweek encourages everyone to be more efficient, streamlining cumbersome processes.
None of this is easy for executives at older companies to hear, and I have some sympathy with their position. We have also embraced working from home, which suits our digital business. But that is perhaps easier for a company such as ours than it is for legacy businesses. Senior executives who are not accustomed to working alone, or from home, are understandably unnerved by rows of expensive empty desks in even more expensive and cavernous office buildings.