Move follows U.K. report touting benefits of shortened week
Another municipality is implementing the four-day workweek.
Algonquin Highlands – a township located in Haliburton County in Ontario – is the latest small-town municipality in rural Ontario to convert to the shortened workweek setup.
The municipality will be implementing the new policy starting in March, joining the townships of Aylmer, Zorra, Springwater and French River, according to a CBC report.
Previously, leading town councillors at the Municipality of French River in northern Ontario decided to make the same move at a Jan. 18 meeting following a successful pilot run last year
Giving workers this option, as well as providing other flexible arrangements like remote work, is essential to meeting workers’ desires, said Liz Danielsen, mayor of Algonquin Highlands.
"Since COVID, people are looking for a different way of approaching life," said Danielsen in the CBC report. "We want to be seen as a dynamic and progressive employer when we are looking for people, and I think this will go a long way to help that."
Algonquin Highlands is located some 220 kilometres west of Ottawa and houses roughly 2,500 people.
4-day workweek trial
The development came after the world’s largest trial of a four-day week found that almost every organization will stick to the new setup.
Specifically, with 91% of companies in the pilot program – conducted in the UK by non-profit 4 Day Week Global, the UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign and think-tank Autonomy – are definitely continuing or planning to continue, and a further 4% are leaning towards continuing.
Only 4% are definitely not continuing among the 60 companies that went through a six-month trial of a four-day week.
More than 30 companies and almost 1,000 employees in countries including the U.S., Ireland and Australia previously concluded the six-month pilot program.
“Results are largely steady across workplaces of varying sizes, demonstrating this is an innovation which works for many types of organizations,” said Juliet Schor, lead researcher and professor at Boston College.
Benefits that companies found with four-day workweek include:
- Companies rated their overall experience of the trial an 8.3/10
- Business performance and productivity both scored an average of of 7.5/10 on two separate scales
- Revenue rose by 1.4% on average over the trial (weighted by company size across when compared to a similar period from previous years
- Companies reported revenue increases of 35%, on average
- The number of staff leaving fell by 57% over the trial period
The majority of Canadian managers (nine in 10) support the idea of a four-day workweek, according to a previous study.
The new setup is also popular among workers, according to the new report:
- 90% of employees said they definitely want to continue on a four-day week, with no one saying they definitely don’t want to continue
- 55% reported an increase in their ability at work
- 15% said that no amount of money would make them accept a five-day schedule at their next job
- 71% of employees had reduced levels of burnout by the end of the trial
- 39% were less stressed
- 43% felt an improvement in mental health.
- 54% said they felt a reduction in negative emotions
