A company which conducted a four-day work week trial has declared the experiment a resounding success.
Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand based company, has released the results of an eight-week trial in which its employees worked for four days a week instead of five.
The two-month experiment was extremely beneficial, with employees reporting reduced stress-levels and a much better work-life balance.
Although the staff worked for four days during a week Perpetual Guardian paid them for a complete five-day work week.
The staff worked for four days during a week but Perpetual Guardian payed them for a complete five day work-week
The results showed improved work-life balance, engagement and creativity
As a result, the staff showed a seven per cent decrease in stress levels when compared to stress levels reported before the trial was conducted.
The work life balance showed a notable increase of 24 per cent in comparison to a survey conducted in 2017, leading to a hike in job satisfaction from 77 per cent to 81 per cent.
The founder of the company, Mr Andrew Barnes, told News.com.au that reducing the number of work-days had no impact on the company’s productivity.
‘Our leadership team reported that there was broadly no change in company outputs pre and during the trial,’ Mr Barnes said.
‘They perceived no reduction in job performance and the survey data showed a marginal increase across most teams.’
Mr Barnes announced the trial to his staff members in February 2018.
He said he wanted his office to be a great place to work which is why he started reading a series of research reports on to increase the productivity of a company.
‘Juggling life and juggling work can actually be quite tricky,’ he said.
‘So we will be trying something reasonably radical,’ he said while announcing the trial in his office as his employees looked confused.
Pictured here: Mr Andrew barnes (left), founder of Perpetual Guardian, on the am show
‘You will be working four days a week. And you will be paid for five.’
In a video shared by the company on Youtube, the staff looked absolutely shocked by his announcement as one of them whispered ‘wow’.
The entire office erupted in nervous laughter before Mr Barnes made his intentions clear.
‘What I am wanting to see is that productivity in this company does not go down, if anything, it goes up,’ he said.
All the respective teams in the company had a month to be ready for the change and figure out ways to do a five-day job in four.
Depending on their role, different teams had a choice to take either a Monday or Friday off work.
After the success of his eight-week trial, Mr Andrews is already gearing up to make the new structure permanent.
The impressive results were achieved while maintaining the same productivity