New Zealand firm’s four-day week trial a raging success

A New Zealand company that tested a four-day week for eight weeks has declared the experiment an “unmitigated success” and plans to make the shorter working week permanent.

Pay levels of the 240 staff were kept the same for the duration of the experiment even although the hours worked per week dropped by 20%.

Perpetual Guardian, which helps customers manage their wills and estates, conducted the experiment during March and April with academics from Auckland University collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data before, during and after the trial.

Perpetual Guardian CEO Andrew Barnes. AFP

A vital ingredient of the experiment was that during it staff were given the freedom “to redesign things” as they saw fit.

The academics found the shorter week unambiguously generated greater staff productivity, better work-life balance among employees and lower stress levels.

Productivity increased by 20%, although staff worked 80% of “normal hours.”

The number of staff who felt able to manage their work-life balance jumped to 78% after the trial, from 54% before.

Staff stress levels dropped by 7% while team engagement rose 20%.

“What happens is you get a motivated, energized, stimulated, loyal workforce,” CEO Andrew Barnes told CNN. “I have ended up with statistics that my staff are fiercely proud of the company they work for because it gives a damn.”

A key takeaway from the experiment was that productivity should be the key determinant of pay, not hours worked.

Barnes said this finding favoured women who are currently often paid less because they worked for fewer hours after they returned from maternity leave.

– AFP