The health insurer has been trialling a four-day work week since 2023. Two years in, engagement is soaring and turnover is at a record low
In 2023, Medibank announced it would be piloting a four-day work week for 250 of its employees.
A year later, the program expanded to include an additional 250 employees, to a total of 500 staff.
Now, two years from its initial trial, Medibank’s four-day work week includes 550 employees.
Speaking with HRD, Medibank group lead – people, spaces and sustainability, Kylie Bishop, said the organisation is gearing up for the next phase of the experiment.
“Our 2030 vision is to create the best health and wellbeing for Australia. And a key part of this is to be the healthiest workplace in Australia,” Bishop said.
“Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of our people and create a sustainable work environment to strengthen engagement and the way we support customers and patients. Key to this, is flexibility and autonomy.”
Lessons learned from the trial
Since implementing the policy, Bishop said turnover is at a record low and engagement at its highest level since March 2021.
Talent attraction is also elevated as word spreads and prospective employees look to take advantage of the benefit.
According to Bishop, the hypothesis behind the trial was to create an environment where engagement was more sustainable through flexibility.
“Over time, that’s proven to be the case. We’ve seen significant and sustained improvements in engagement, job satisfaction and the health and wellbeing of participants, while maintaining business performance and customer outcomes,”
In tandem with the Health and Wellbeing Research Unit at Macquarie University’s Business School, data from the initial 6-month period revealed that:
- Outcomes remained stable
- Unplanned absence reduced by one third
- Engagement increased by 6.7%
- Overall health increased by 16.3%
- Nutrition improved by 17.5%
- Sleep improved by 29.9%
- Work life balance improved by 31.4%
This trial has prompted an “experimentation mindset” at the company. This has made way for increased innovation to help drive better outcomes for employee wellbeing.
“We’ve seen a tremendous shift in how we work and people’s experience of work,” Bishop added.
However, a change this significant does not come without challenge. Bishop noted that a four-day work week requires employees to meet their employer halfway.
Medibank operates on the popular 100:80:100 model. This lets employees retain 100% of their pay while reducing hours to 80%, so long as they maintain 100% productivity.
Importantly, Bishop said leaders had to “get out of the way a little bit” to allow teams to figure out what works best for them.
Maintaining autonomy and accountability requires constant and sustained communication. Clarity on objectives and set structures have kept Medibank’s trial running effectively.
“What we’ve learnt it that this isn’t an easy thing to change, and it takes hard work to achieve and to sustain,” said Bishop.
“To get to this level of flexibility, it requires a lot of autonomy and accountability, and we hold that autonomy and accountability at a team level.”
Helping to drive popularity for the four-day week is the not-for-profit community, 4 Day Week Global.
According to its data, there are now over 2,000 companies participating in the four-day work week movement, comprising of over 130,000 employees in 35 countries.
Through trials and permanent implementation, over 10 million hours of time has been reclaimed, helping to promote flexibility and wellbeing.
