Latest news with #WenFan
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Health
- Forbes
Largest 4-Day Workweek Study Says Mental Health Benefits Outweigh
The largest study ever performed on the four-day workweek finds employees gain mental health ... More benefits. Biggest trial of four-day work week finds workers are happier and feel just as productive Compressing five days of work into four can create stress, but the benefits outweigh the downsides, sprawling study shows. By Workers reported better mental health after they switched to a four-day work week without a reduction in pay. Credit: Getty Moving to a four-day work week without losing pay leaves employees happier, healthier and higher-performing, according to the largest study of such an intervention so far, encompassing six countries1. The research showed that a six-month trial of working four days a week reduced burnout, increased job satisfaction and improved mental and physical health. The study's authors had wondered whether a condensed working week would add to employees' stress. 'When workers want to deliver the same productivity, they might work very rapidly to get the job done, and their well-being might actually worsen,' says lead author Wen Fan, a sociologist at Boston College in Massachusetts. 'But that's not what we found.' Instead, staff members' stress levels fell. The study was published today in Nature Human Wed, Jul 23, 11:54 AM (7 days ago) to me Hi Bryan,Earlier this week, findings on the impact of the 4 day work week were revealed in Nature Human Behaviour, taken from nearly 3000 employees at 141 companies over a six month period. Work time reduction via a 4-day workweek finds improvements in workers' well-being Time spent on the job is a fundamental aspect of working conditions that influences many facets of individuals' lives. Here we study how an organization-wide 4-day workweek intervention—with no reduction in pay—affects workers' well-being. Organizations undergo pre-trial work reorganization to improve efficiency and collaboration, followed by a 6-month trial. Analysis of pre- and post-trial data from 2,896 employees across 141 organizations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA shows improvements in burnout, job satisfaction, mental health and physical health—a pattern not observed in 12 control companies. Both company-level and individual-level reductions in hours are correlated with well-being gains, with larger individual-level (but not company-level) reductions associated with greater improvements in well-being. Three key factors mediate the relationship: improved self-reported work ability, reduced sleep problems and decreased fatigue. The results indicate that income-preserving 4-day workweeks are an effective organizational intervention for enhancing workers' well-being. Workers reported feeling happier, with reduced burnout, increased job satisfaction and improved mental and physical health. Yet Isaac Kohen, founder and CPO at Teramind - a leading provider of workforce analytics for insider risk and productivity, questions the validity of the study as follows: "While the improved employee wellbeing reported in this study is encouraging, the absence of objective productivity measurement represents a critical gap that could mislead organizations into making costly operational decisions based on incomplete data. Employee self-reporting on productivity is valuable for understanding sentiment, but it can't provide the granular insights businesses need to justify such significant changes to stakeholders and boards. When 90% of companies chose to continue their four-day schedules, were they making this decision based on hard metrics or just improved morale? Real productivity measurement requires analyzing actual work patterns like application usage, task completion rates, and workflow efficiency. Organizations, in order to properly evaluate productivity of 5-day vs 4-day weeks, need to establish baseline metrics during traditional five-day schedules, then continuously monitor and compare performance throughout four-day implementations. According to a 2023 survey conducted by Zippia, a good productivity percentage is somewhere between 70-75% and the average worker only spends 4 hours and 12 minutes actively working during an 8-hour shift. Without this objective data, organizations risk implementing compressed schedules based on optimism rather than evidence. Feeling more productive and being more productive aren't always the same thing, and only comprehensive measurement can bridge that perception gap to determine whether four-day work weeks truly serve both employee wellbeing and business objectives." If you plan on writing about this, please feel free to use the above would also be happy to share the impact of a growing remote workforce, which has increased nearly fivefold since 2019, and why the cost of cybersecurity breaches from remote setups is significantly higher than office-based advise if you would like to schedule a call with Isaac or have further questions for
Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Boost in job satisfaction, health: four-day work week benefits
Working less could give us more, a new study suggests. Four-day work weeks without a reduction in income are found to boost workers' job satisfaction and physical and mental health, driven by enhanced work performance, lower levels of fatigue and fewer sleep problems, new research suggests. The findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, highlight the potential for organisations and policymakers to improve employee well-being by re-evaluating workplace hours. Initiatives that reduce working hours — such as a six-hour workday or a 20% reduction in working time — have recently been trialled around the world. For example, the 4 Day Week Global initiative has run trials in many countries, with participation from about 375 companies, to understand how a shortened work week — without a reduction in pay — can result in a better working environment. To test the effects of the four-day work week (with no reduction in worker pay) intervention, Wen Fan, Juliet Schor and colleagues conducted six-month trials that involved 2896 employees across 141 organisations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland and the USA. Using survey data, they compared work- and health-related indicators (including burnout, job satisfaction, mental and physical health) before and after the intervention. They also compared these outcomes with those from 285 employees at 12 companies that did not trial the intervention. Fan and colleagues found that after the four-day work week intervention, there was a reduction in average working hours of about five hours per week. Employees with a reduction of eight hours or more per work week self-reported experiencing larger reductions in burnout and improvements in job satisfaction and mental health, as compared with those at companies that maintained a five-day workweek. Similar, though smaller, effects were observed among employees with between one and four hour and five and seven hour reductions in their work week. These benefits were partially explained by a reduced number of sleeping problems and levels of fatigue, and improved individual work ability. The authors suggest that shorter work weeks and reduced working hours without a reduction in salary can help to improve job satisfaction and worker health. They note that a key limitation of the study was companies self-selecting to participate, and resulted in a sample that consists predominantly of smaller companies from English-speaking countries. — Science Media Centre
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Surprise! Four-Day Work Weeks Make Employees Happier, Productive
The evidence is growing that a shorter work week is better not just for workers, but for employers as well. The largest-ever study of a four-day work week found that employees working fewer hours weren't just happier, but they also maintained productivity and had better job satisfaction, according to an article on the study published by Scientific American. In fact, the four-day work week was so successful that most companies kept the reduced schedule even after the study ended. Published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the study looked at 2,896 employees at 141 companies in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Shorter Week, Less Stress Before shifting to the reduced four-day work week, companies involved in the study restructured their workflow to maintain 80% of a worker's weekly productivity by eliminating activities like unnecessary meetings. Some researchers suspected that the condensed schedule would lead to more stress for workers who hurried to get their tasks completed in time. 'When workers want to deliver the same productivity, they might work very rapidly to get the job done, and their well-being might actually worsen,' said lead author Wen Fan, a sociologist at Boston College in Massachusetts, in the Scientific American article. 'But that's not what we found.' Overall, workers felt better job satisfaction and reported better mental health after six months of the study. And while the study didn't look at whether companies' productivity levels dropped, it did say that 90% of companies kept the shorter work week even after the trial ended, indicating they weren't worried about a dip in profits. The study did leave some questions unanswered. For example, since employees self-reported the results, researchers wondered whether they over-emphasized the positive benefits in an effort to retain the extra day off. Read the original article on Investopedia
Scientific American
22-07-2025
- Health
- Scientific American
The Biggest Trial Yet Confirms Four-Day Workweek Makes Employees Happier
Moving to a four-day work week without losing pay leaves employees happier, healthier and higher-performing, according to the largest study of such an intervention so far, encompassing six countries. The research showed that a six-month trial of working four days a week reduced burnout, increased job satisfaction and improved mental and physical health. The study's authors had wondered whether a condensed working week would add to employees' stress. 'When workers want to deliver the same productivity, they might work very rapidly to get the job done, and their well-being might actually worsen,' says lead author Wen Fan, a sociologist at Boston College in Massachusetts. 'But that's not what we found.' Instead, staff members' stress levels fell. The study was published July 21 in Nature Human Behaviour. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Pandemic upheaval Levels of employee stress and burnout soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading many workers to quit their jobs, the authors note. The result was large numbers of unfilled positions in some labour markets. To see whether shorter weeks might be the antidote for poor morale, researchers launched a study of 2,896 individuals at 141 companies in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Before making the shift to reduced hours, each company that opted into the overhaul was given roughly eight weeks to restructure its workflow to maintain productivity at 80% of previous workforce hours, purging time-wasting activities such as unnecessary meetings. Two weeks before the trial started, each employee answered a series of questions to evaluate their well-being, including, 'Does your work frustrate you?' and 'How would you rate your mental health?' After six months on the new schedule, they revisited the same questions. Overall, workers felt more satisfied with their job performance and reported better mental health after six months of a shortened work week than before it. Winners and losers? A common criticism of the four-day work week is that employees can't produce the same output in four days as in five. The study didn't analyse company-wide productivity, but it offers an explanation for how workers can be more efficient over fewer hours. 'When people are more well rested, they make fewer mistakes and work more intensely,' says Pedro Gomes, an economist at Birkbeck University of London. But Gomes would like to see more analysis of the impacts on productivity. Fan notes that more than 90% of companies decided to keep the four-day work week after the trial, indicating that they weren't worried about a drop in profits. The authors also looked at whether the positive impacts of shorter work weeks would wane once the system lost its novelty. They collected data after workers had spent 12 months after the start of the trial and found that well-being stayed high. But because companies signed up for the trial voluntarily, the results might overestimate the true effect of the four-day work week across a range of companies. And because all outcomes were self-reported, employees might have exaggerated the benefits in the hope of keeping their extra day off. The authors call for randomized studies to test the scheme.
7NEWS
22-07-2025
- Health
- 7NEWS
Four-day working week: The new evidence igniting push to extend weekends
Extending the weekend could be the recipe for improving employee health and the secret sauce to boost business productivity. A large-scale, peer-reviewed study has found a four-day working week could reduce employee burnout and improve job satisfaction. But the research released also found that working fewer hours improved their workplace performance, according to insights gleaned from more than 500 Australian and New Zealand employees. The findings released on Tuesday follow a series of significant trials of four-day working weeks in nations including the UK, Canada and Germany, and after the Greens proposed a national pilot program during the federal election campaign. The research by academics at Boston University and published in the Nature Human Behaviour journal investigated experiences at 141 companies testing four-day working weeks with no reduction in employee pay. The companies across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the US and UK prepared for the trial by reorganising their operations and eliminating low-value activities such as 'unnecessary meetings' for two months, before reducing workers' hours. Workers less likely to suffer burnout Researchers led by Wen Fan and Juliet Schor compared the experience of the 2896 employees to a control group of employees working a typical five-day week. After six months, those who spent fewer hours at work were less likely to suffer burnout, had a higher rate of job satisfaction and better mental and physical health. 'We find that work time reduction is associated with improvements in employee wellbeing - a pattern not observed in the control companies,' the study said. 'Across outcomes, the magnitude is larger for the two work-related measures - burnout and job satisfaction - followed by mental health, with the smallest changes reported in physical health.' Improved performance and productivity Reducing work hours also improved performance and productivity, the employees reported, due to lower levels of fatigue and fewer sleeping problems. Companies that reduced weekly working hours by eight experienced the biggest gains, the research found, although modest improvements were observed with reductions of between one and four hours. While the study mirrored findings from similar research, University of Otago academic Paula O'Kane said it provided more evidence that boosting productivity did not necessarily mean boosting workloads. 'Traditionally, time spent working is used a proxy for productivity when, in fact, better rested and healthier people can be more productive in less time,' she said. 'While the study centred on a four-day week, the broader implication is clear: flexible and potentially individualised working arrangements can deliver similar benefits.' The findings come as the federal government prepares to hold its Economic Reform Roundtable in Canberra to investigate ways to boost Australia's productivity and create a more sustainable, resilient economy. Labour productivity fell by one per cent in the year to March, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, even though the number of hours worked rose by 2.3 per cent.
