April 26th, 2023, Christien Pheby
Last year, several businesses participated in a trial four-day workweek. Some 56 companies chose to extend the new working pattern experiment – and of those 18 opted to implement it permanently. But would it work for businesses across the UK?
We surveyed 1,028 business decision makers across Great Britain. Most back introducing a four-day workweek (64%), with just three in ten (28%) saying they would oppose it.
Broadly speaking, large companies are more likely to favour the idea (76% supporting it; 20% opposed ) than small (53% vs. 38%) and micro (53% vs. 33%) businesses.
A shorter workweek isn’t something that they just endorse in theory, either. Some three in five decision-makers (59%) also say they’d reduce the number of working days to four, again with higher enthusiasm for the idea among larger businesses (74% vs. 32%) than small (49% vs. 43%) and micro (44% vs. 41%) businesses.
Our data also asked whether businesses believe a four-day work week would be more or less economically productive for the nation.
Overall, 41% say they believe the country would be more productive and 22% say it would have about the same levels of productivity with fewer working days (making 63% in total). Just three in ten (31%) say it would be less productive overall.
Methodology
YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. This study was conducted online on 27 March – 3 April 2023, with a nationally representative sample of 1,028 business decision makers in Great Britain (aged 18+ years), using a questionnaire designed by YouGov. Data figures have been weighted by age, gender, education and social grade and reflect the latest ONS population estimates. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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