Companies to trial four-day work week with no pay cut

A group of 20 organisations across Australia and New Zealand are moving to give staff long weekends with no pay cut.

They’ll trial a four-day work week for six months.

Mortgage brokerage More Than Mortgages, social enterprise Our Community, marketing agency The Walk and mental health organisation Momentum Mental Health are among the companies trialling the shorter week.

Workplace performance expert Tony Wilson says although it seems wrong on the surface, there’s evidence it won’t mean a decline in productivity.

“There’s quite a number of anecdotal studies. In the Netherlands they actually went to a 30 hour work week instead of a 40 hour work week and they saw increased productivity,” he told Ross and Russel.

“The reality is that in most workplaces there is a lot of wasted time as it is, and it’s almost like when we shorten the deadline on things people are able to get in the zone a bit better, shut out distractions and be a bit more intense about the work that they do.

“If you look at probably the industries that will benefit the most from it are what we call knowledge workers — so if your currency is really problem-solving, a little bit of creative thinking, that sort of thing — that’s where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.”

Press PLAY below to hear how four-day weeks can work for employers