How Does a Four Day Work Week Work for Charities?

With flexible working and wellbeing firmly on charities’ agendas over the last few years, moving to a four day work week is something that may have caught your interest. We spoke to three charities who have adopted a four day work week to find out how it works for them.

How does a four day work week work?

The Four Day Week organisation is campaigning for a four day work week of 32 hours with no loss of pay. This has potential benefits for staff, employers and wider society. Four Day Week Global have been running trials all over the world, including an official UK trial that lasted from June to November 2022.

Two of the three charities we spoke to took part in this global trial and the third chose to start independently moving towards a four day work week in 2019. They all broadly work the same four days with the same day off each week.

If you’re interested in doing a trial, you can get more information and practical support, including on how those who need to continue to provide services five, six or seven days a week can adapt at: https://www.4dayweek.co.uk/advice-for-employers.

Waterwise

“To get the benefits, you must change how you work.” Nicci Russell, Managing Director, Waterwise.

Nicci Russell, Managing Director, Waterwise

Number of employees initially involved: 8
Working hours before: 35 over 5 days
Working hours now: 28 (7 per day Monday to Thursday)

“I’d followed the four day work week conversation for years, so when our Wellbeing Champion spotted the opportunity to sign up for the UK trial, we went for it!

“We agreed to all have Fridays off, traditionally our quietest day. We put lots of efficiency measures into place. As a team we now default to half-hour meetings, only invite essential people and send a clear agenda and any prep needed in advance. We clearly mark emails as urgent and for action or info and do fewer all-team circulations of drafts and documents.

“As individuals we use tools like the Pomodoro technique, Monk Mode Mornings (no emails or meetings before 11), and allocating time for deep focus tasks according to our own body clocks.

Evaluation

“We’re capturing experiences at the end of every month, and these show that it started harder and got easier. We’re doing OK, but need to keep working at it—and everyone says the extra day off refreshes them and more than makes up for the busy-ness of the week.

“The official trial measured organisational metrics like leavers, joiners, income and sick days and sent staff surveys three or four times during the trial. These also measured how the fifth day was spent.

“We extended our own trial for a further six months and are currently deciding with the Board whether to continue with the four day work week permanently. We’ve continued to track the same measures and set our own KPIs, mirroring how we know things are going well under a five day work week too.

“We incorporated a month-long blitz of media interviews during a high annual leave period and still managed to stick to our hours—we’re proud of that.

Benefits

“The four day work week has been great for wellbeing, staff retention and productivity.

“I’d definitely recommend doing a trial with defined success measures, co-designed with your team. But to get the benefits, you must change how you work, otherwise it will lead to increased stress and pressure from workload, and reduced organisational impact and outcomes.”

Scotland’s International Development Alliance

“The pilot has been a positive experience with…improved wellbeing and decreased stress.” Frances Guy, Chief Executive, Scotland’s International Development Alliance

Frances Guy, Chief Executive, Scotland’s International Development Alliance

Number of employees initially involved: 7
Working hours before: 35 per week
Working hours now: 28 (7 per day Monday to Thursday)

“Our organisation is concerned with wellbeing, both in Scotland and elsewhere, so it seemed sensible to get involved in a trial supporting this. Like many small charities, we’ve also experienced challenges with recruitment and retention which we hoped the four day work week would improve.

“Staff were attracted by the opportunity for better work-life balance, although there were some initial concerns about workload. We agreed it was easier for everyone to take the same day off and for that to be clearly communicated to members so that expectations of service were managed.

Increasing efficiency

“Our objective wasn’t to work longer days but to find more efficient ways of working. We ensure staff have clear performance objectives that fit with our strategy and everyone is clear what they’re delivering. We’ve also reduced meeting times and double-up in attendance, and better prioritised work.

“Cutting hours by 20% isn’t easy and requires discipline, planning and time to adapt. Being part of a global pilot provided great support and an opportunity to learn from others.

“There’s still a need to be flexible—there are times of year or specific activities where it’s more difficult to work reduced hours. As a team we’ve acknowledged this and have hopefully managed to continuously adapt.

“We extended the trial for a further three months. We issued anonymous staff surveys and assessed our standard impact reporting to check if there were any reductions in efficiency from previous years. We also have monthly meetings reporting on achieving our strategic outcomes.

A positive experience

“The pilot has been a positive experience with staff reporting improved wellbeing and decreased stress, although you do need to maintain discipline and regularly check that the pattern is still working for everyone.

“We’re pleased to prove it’s possible to maintain results on reduced hours and hope our members will benefit from our experience.”

Centre for Thriving Places

“It can create a time-pressure to get the same amount of work done.” Katie Tiplady-Startin, Operations and Project Manager, Centre for Thriving Places

Katie Tiplady-Startin, Operations and Project Manager, Centre for Thriving Places

Number of employees initially involved: 12 (plus around 12 freelancers)
Working hours before: 37.5 per week
Working hours now: 32 over four days

“We’re a wellbeing organisation and it was very clear that a four day work week is good for wellbeing, so, after a full consultation with staff, we decided to make the move in early 2019.

“We went down from 1.0 full-time equivalent to 0.9, then 0.8 over the year. We initially scaled-down wages so the incremental approach helped to allay staff concerns, but overall there was a positive response. This year we’ve made a further shift: four days is now considered full-time and wages have gone back up to 1.0.

Flexibility

“Generally people work Monday to Thursday but we’re fully-flexible (within normal working hours). We work as consultants to organisations, so we’re not dealing with individual service users, but sometimes we do need to attend meetings on Fridays. We also try to be flexible for our freelancers who might want to work on a day we’re not in and need to get hold of us.

“Clarity is really important in changing working patterns—you need to fully-consult existing staff, be very clear on the purpose and also be transparent in job adverts.

“Things can be challenging, as the rest of the world works five days and it can create a time-pressure to get the same amount of work done. Sometimes we spend the majority of our week in meetings. We keep an eye on workloads but people are passionate and want to do more so it can be hard to stop them using the extra day.

Helping us recruit

But it’s worth it. A four day work week is attractive—it helps us recruit, despite still paying below market average in some areas. And as a team we have more energy and feel more invigorated by our work/life balance.

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