No one would have dared to suggest it, prior to a pandemic that grounded employees at home and made companies learn new ways of keeping business as usual, with staff working remotely miles away from their empty offices.

But now that, over the past two years of mastering Slack and Zoom meetings, employees realised that commuting several hours just to sit in front of a computer or to answer a phone doesn’t necessarily equate to productivity, a shorter week is on the cards. 30 UK-based companies are moving their employees to a four-day working week in an attempt to boost productivity in the workplace this year.

The concept is known as the 100:80:100 model, where workers receive 100% of pay for 80% of their time, as long as they commit to 100% productivity.

Across the pond, other companies are also trying to reduce working days to increase staff retention, with Panasonic announcing a four-day workweek policy earlier this year and San Francisco-based checkout startup Bolt adopting a four-day workweek after conducting a trial in which executives improved productivity and work-life balance.

It is the latest development of the new normal, now that several countries have dropped national mandatory work from home rules. And almost 100 years since Henry Ford adopted a five-day workweek when, in 1926, when his factories stopped production on Saturdays and Sundays, the new move to make our workweek even shorter is certainly a welcomed one.

But how feasible it is to fit approximately 40 hours of work, the average weekly hours of many employees, in fewer days? And, most importantly: can it really make a difference?

For entrepreneur Baruch Labunski, CEO at digital marketing company Rank Secure, age and position within a company can play a vital role in whether a reduced week, on paper, might not turn out to be that reduced after all.

“Employees who are younger and motivated will likely like the idea, as it gives them an extra day off. That could mean more effective production. However, those a little older or senior-level employees may see it as a negative because they already work long hours and likely would still need to come in all five days. That could mean no benefits.”

Labunski also believes that logistics can be an issue preventing the success of a four-day week for many companies:

“The other issue that would be negative for some companies is keeping production lines going to keep up with orders as most employees move to the four-day workweek. It could end up costing the company more in overall employee pay as well as negatively affecting production. After all, the company must still contend with vendors and customers who may not be on a four-day workweek.”

It is logistics, indeed – and not old structured weekdays and how people split them in between work and private life – that will end up proving to be the biggest challenge for companies trying to implement a shorter week in 2022:

“A four day working week sounds excellent – for a full-time employee at least. For an employer, it comes with problems as it effectively increases the wage bill but for no obvious increase in output. It creates issues for roles where cover is required as there is one day less per employee available to be deployed. It also causes problems when the employer has part-time employees as do you then reduce their hours pro-rata? The only way I have seen a four-day work week work well is when a compressed working week is in place as the hours are still broadly the same. I have benefitted from this arrangement in the past myself and enjoyed having that extra day off each week while still performing my duties in a full-time capacity. Four longer days isn’t for everyone though and it wouldn’t work for employees with certain learning requirements or disabilities for example.” – says Sophie Milliken a recruitment and employability expert with over 15 years of recruitment experience and author of the book ‘From Learner to Earner’, a recruitment insider’s guide for students wanting to achieve graduate job success (Rethink Press, 2019).

In a new world where many of us have now got used to work from our home offices, often wearing clothes way more comfortable than any workplace’s dress code, it is no wonder companies are struggling to bring staff back to fill their offices from Monday to Friday. But can companies find out if a four-day work week will, realistically, positively impact productivity and staff happiness?

Suki Sandhu, from INvolve: Covid-19 and remote working showed us how quickly and effectively individuals can adapt to new working practices

UK-based HR specialist Suki Sandhu, founder of INvolve, a global network and consultancy enterprise championing diversity and inclusion in businesses, believes that data collection, when done properly and with transparency, can improve productivity and wellbeing in the work place.

“Many forward-thinking companies are already monitoring both productivity and wellbeing as key performance indicators, so it should be clear to see if the needle is moving. However, for those who aren’t, there are many advantages in understanding and connecting with different employee experiences, so finding new ways to collate key data is important. But it must be done correctly and openly. Tracking employees without consent or clear justification – especially through technology – is a dangerous trend which can be counter-productive to both productivity and happiness. Instead, it is important to engage employees with any data-collection process to outline both the reasons, and how the information they provide will help everyone in creating a better workplace.”

The four-day work trial in the UK is expected to last approximately six months and companies taking part are provided with support from experts, researchers, and academics. But before we can see any results, companies planning to replicate the work model already utilised by many companies in Japan should think it through, taking one step at a time to be able to cope with the potential downsides.

“Just like any major change, there will be an adjustment period. Some people define themselves through their work, it is part of their identity, so scaling back the time they dedicate to it may initially be challenging. However, Covid-19 and remote working showed us how quickly and effectively individuals can adapt to new working practices – if, and only if – they are adequately supported and championed by their employers. The fact is that productivity doesn’t necessarily suffer when work time is reduced to 4 days so the stress of not getting enough done should quickly subside and become business-as-usual.” – complements Suki Sandhu, from INvolve.

As we move forward into 2022 and beyond, maybe the solution to bring employees back to work is exactly that: to allow them to carry on working from their homes, even if just a day per week.

The pandemic may be coming to an end. But those Slack chats pinging on the corner of your PC and Zoom meetings with domestic sounds popping in the background are not over, yet.