Who among us hasn’t wished for a few more hours in a day, for another day in the week to do the things you really want to do?
Companies and employees who participated in a study in the United Kingdom found out what happens when you get that extra time.
Researchers released the results of a six-month study conducted in 2022 of 61 businesses in the U.K. that reduced employees’ five-day workweeks by one day, or by the hourly equivalent, without reducing pay. I’ll go into more detail from the report in just a second, but to give you an idea of what to expect, here’s a line from researchers’ conclusions:
“The benefits of a shorter working week for no reduction in pay are now both well-known and well-evidenced: Employees are happier and healthier, and the organizations they work for are often more productive, more efficient, and retain their staff more readily.”
Now, at the very least, that should make you curious about the potential of a four-day workweek, both generally in the U.S. as well as in the hotel industry specifically. Undoubtedly, you’re also likely wary of it and have your doubts, and that’s completely understandable. The best course of action, of course, is to read through the report in the link above to see the full scope, who was involved, the methodology used and the results so you can evaluate it yourself.
Here are some of the highlights that show not just the results but the flexibility in what a “four-day” workweek could look like for different companies.
Without sharing specific company names or detailed categories, the study categorized participants into groups such as marketing/advertising, professional services, charity/non-profit, educational services, manufacturing and engineering. One company had more than 1,000 employees, but 66% had 25 or fewer employees and 22% had 50 or more. Overall, about 2,900 employees were involved.
The companies used a variety of four-day weeks or four-day equivalents. Some had a dedicated extra day of the week in which all employees were off, such as making Friday part of the weekend. Others had employees take a third day off, but it was staggered among the staff, with one team taking a Monday off while the other took Fridays off, because having five-day coverage was necessary.
Some companies followed a “decentralized” schedule, allowing different departments to use the schedules that fit best for them. Others annualized the third day off, having employees work an averaged 32 hours a week, a method one restaurant used to have longer opening times in the summer and shorter days during the winter. The conditional approach tied having a four-day workweek to performance, reserving the right to suspend that schedule for departments or individuals who were not meeting agreed performance targets.
Different companies have different scheduling needs, so knowing there are more options for having a four-day workweek than just having a long weekend opens it up as a possibility to more businesses. Employers who are intrigued by this new concept have more options available to see what fits their operations best.
The results are the key thing here. Of the 61 companies that participated, 56 said they will continue with their four-day weeks. Within that number, 18 have said the new schedule is permanent. For the five not continuing, three have paused while the remaining two have extended their trials of shorter working hours.
For the 23 companies that provided enough data, revenue grew by 1.4% on average, weighted by company size, over the six months of the trial period. When measuring revenue in the trial period against a comparable six-month period, the researchers found revenue grew 35% on average for the 24 companies that provided sufficient data.
In terms of employee morale, the companies involved saw the number of resignations drop from 2 to 0.8 per 100 employees. For the employees who answered survey questions, 39% reported feeling less stressed while 48% reported no change in stress. Seventy-one percent of employees reported feeling less burned out at work. Job satisfaction grew with 48% of employees.
One particularly interesting data point from the study showed that 52% of employees working a four-day week reported an increase in leisure travel. That would certainly be an added benefit to the hotel industry if more people globally, still receiving their full pay, had more time for leisure activities and turned that into more travel.
I wrote a few months ago about the preliminary results of the study and the potential benefits the hotel industry could see from the adoption of a four-day workweek. Now that we have the final results of the study, I think the results are promising enough to motivate hotel companies to conduct their own experiments here.
Making a major change to work models can’t, and shouldn’t, be done overnight, but there’s enough here to pique hoteliers’ interest and see if this is something they could do. Management companies could certainly try this out on a small scale, perhaps with a property or two, and see how it affects performance as well as employee attraction, retention and morale.
With the American Hotel & Lodging Association coming out just days ago stating that 79% of surveyed hotels are still reporting staffing shortages, the industry is clearly still struggling with attracting and holding on to talent. While higher wages and more benefits are certainly helping, giving people a greater work-life balance and adopting a schedule that could reduce burnout and increases job satisfaction is absolutely worth trying.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com or @HNN_Bryan.
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