More than a third (34%) of employers would be more willing to consider introducing a four-day working week if staff attended the office on all those days.
New research from Hays also discovered that around three in five (62%) employees would prefer to do a four-day week fully in the office than five days of hybrid working.
The study of nearly 11,900 UK employers and workers follows an official UK-wide four-day week trial, which led to 56 of the 61 organisations that took part deciding to extend it and 18 of those 56 employers making it a permanent arrangement.
Previous research by Hays in February 2022, discovered that 5% of organisations had adopted, or were trialling, a four-day week. While this percentage remained the same this year, 17% of businesses polled are now thinking about introducing it, rising from 9% last year.
Gaelle Blake, head of permanent appointments at Hays UK and Ireland, commented: “It’s clear from our research that the appetite for a four-day working week has increased from both professionals and employers, however in reality only 5% of respondents to our survey are working for an organisation where this is actually happening.
“Organisations were quick to adopt hybrid working as a result of the pandemic, however the four-day week is a much bigger cultural and operational shift for many organisations.”
The survey further found that 64% of individuals would be tempted to leave their jobs if they were offered a four-day week at another organisation – a rise from 53% who said the same in 2022.
Blake added: “What our research does point to is the importance of flexibility as professionals would be willing to travel into an office more often if there was better flexibility from employers on their working days. While the four-day working week is an attractive offering for workers, there’s lots of ways for employers to stand out from the crowd by allowing staff flexibility in the form of hybrid working, flexible hours and more.
“There’s still over 1.1 million unfilled job vacancies across the UK so employers need to be aware of the differing ways to attract professionals to their organisation.”
