LOHAS OTTAWA, Canada, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The CEO of a Toronto-based technology company says the four-day workday experiment has been a huge success and even brought an "unexpected" result.
CEO Ross Wainwright said the software company has been working four days a week for 500 employees since the beginning of June, with a two-month pilot period that will end this week.
Company executives said the decision to shorten the weekly working hours was based on feedback from employees and was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. "The early results were fantastic," the CEO said, "and the employees were clearly happier and more balanced." Wainwright said the company didn't take a pay cut to achieve a four-day-a-week workday, and everyone was off on Friday.
"It's about getting a better balance for our employees and helping to improve their mental health," he said. The most "unexpected" outcome of the trial, Wainwright said, was that his employees told him they felt the company trusted them and could get the job done in less time. "We empower employees to get the job done within their schedules," and what really motivates employees is the power of trust, and you should trust your employees, who will complete more than five days of work in four days.
Wainwright said the company will evaluate the results of the trial over the next 6 weeks and hopes that working 4 days a week will become a company benefit and the plan will be a permanent part.
He said the experiment also had a "huge impact" on employee retention amid labor shortages.
"There is no doubt that I would recommend other businesses in Ontario to experiment." "We watched for eight weeks and that was right." Meanwhile, the world's largest four-day workweek experiment is also close to half of that in the UK.
Organizers say people's well-being has improved significantly. Researchers at Boston College and Oxford University, including about 3,300 employees from 70 different companies, participated in the trial.
Although the participating companies worked only 80% of the usual hours, there was no change in terms of salary or productivity.
The trial began in June and will continue until November. "Interestingly, businesses say there have been overwhelmingly positive experiences in terms of revenue and productivity levels, either maintained or in some cases improved." In a video interview with BNN Bloomberg earlier this month, Charlotte Lockhart said the British company is a non-profit organisation that has been working to support the adoption of a four-day workday since 2018.