10 companies that have adopted the 4-day workweek

January 10, 2022 3:26 PM

As other countries test out four-day workweeks with success, employees in the U.S. are left to wonder if it will ever take hold at home.

Just 15% of U.S. employers offer a four-day schedule, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, yet the rise of flexible and remote working arrangements, as well as advancements in technology, could soon make this idea a reality for more workers.

“More and more businesses are moving to productivity-focused strategies to enable them to reduce worker hours without reducing pay,” says Joe O’Connor, the global pilot program manager at 4 Day Week Global, a New Zealand-based organization helping employers around the world establish a shorter workweek. “The four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are ‘at work’, to a sharper focus on the output being produced.”

In Iceland, four-day workweek trials run by the Reykjavík City Council and the national government — in which employers were paid the same amount for working shorter hours — took place between 2015 and 2019, according to a report from the BBC. The report called the test an “overwhelming success” with employees across the nation reporting less stress and burnout, while productivity either remained the same or increased. The Spanish government is also testing out a four-day workweek, and different companies across Japan and New Zealand have also begun rolling out this policy.

“The potential benefits of this scheduling plan go beyond providing your employees with a positive work experience,” Matt Buchanan, the co-founder and chief growth officer at Service Direct, a marketing company testing out a four-day work week, wrote in a column for Employee Benefit News. “You may find that your employees actually get more done, and the quality of work may be elevated as well … [and] adding a perk that gives your people some additional lifestyle flexibility can go a long way toward keeping them around for the long haul.”

While there is no nationwide four-day workweek policy in the U.S., Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) has put forward the 32-Hour Workweek Act, which has gotten support from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and aims to reduce the typical 40-hour U.S. workweek that has been the norm since the 1940s.

“After a nearly two-year-long pandemic that forced millions of people to explore remote work options, it’s safe to say that we can’t — and shouldn’t — simply go back to normal, because normal wasn’t working,” Takano said in a statement on his website in December. “People were spending more time at work, less time with loved ones, their health and well-being was worsening, and all the while, their pay has remained stagnant. This is a serious problem. It’s time for progress and I am confident that with the CPC behind this bill, we can take meaningful steps forward and create positive, lasting change in people’s lives.”

In the meantime, some U.S. employers, 10 of which are listed below, have taken it upon themselves to offer a four-day workweek — and are seeing results worth celebrating.

Wonderlic

The talent assessment company made its four-day workweek a permanent part of its culture in the fall of 2021, following a successful test run over the summer. Wonderlic employees work 32-hours each week, down from 40, and

CEO Becca Callahan

says she’s seen increased productivity, engagement and bottom line results, in addition to employees feeling “renewed and refreshed.”

Service Direct

The marketing company started testing out an alternating four-day workweek schedule — five days one week, four the next — after the onset of the pandemic, an effort to maximize work time while also offering employees more time for life outside the virtual office. The company says the test run has yielded an increase in productivity, greater employee retention and an increase in innovation among workers.

Bolt

Following a three-month trial 84% of Bolt employees said they are more productive at work and that their work-life balance has improved; 86% report working more efficiently.

“If you can get your work completed from Monday to Thursday, then there should be no latent expectation that Friday is time on,” CEO Ryan Breslow said in a statement on the company’s website announcing the permanent adoption of the four-day workweek “Instead, it can be time off — a period to rest, recover, engage with loved ones, think creatively and all the other things that enliven us.”

The Financial Diet

The media company designed to help young women manage their finances started to test out a four-day workweek in July of 2021, and the success of that policy made CEO Chelsea Fagan write on Twitter that the company will “never go back” to a 40-hour workweek.

“Revenue increased, everyone's happier, the same work gets done. And also three days is the minimum for a good weekend lol,” she tweeted.

Buffer

The social media organizing platform announced in February of 2021 that it was permanently adopting a four-day workweek, following a successful six-month test period. Employees at Buffer say their productivity levels remained the same and they experienced better work-life balance, as well as a decrease in their overall stress levels.

The Wanderlust Group

Wanderlust, which builds tech-driven marketplaces to help adventurers visit and access different travel destinations, has been working a Tuesday-Friday workweek for more than a year. Since making the decision to reduce weekly hours, the company has seen 99% year-over-year growth in its annual recurring revenue.

Uncharted

The social impact accelerator says they never saw a decline in the quality of work employees were producing after adopting a four-day workweek in 2020. Uncharted also saw a reduction in workplace stress and burnout, and saw workers reimagine how they manage their time, with some employees blocking off large chunks of the workday for “deep work focused on key priorities,” the company wrote in a blog on its website.

Wildbit

The software company, which focuses on helping build businesses with a people-focused approach, calls the four-day workweek the “future of work,” and has been embracing this policy since 2017.

“Working a 4-day workweek at Wildbit means four days of truly focused work where we solve hard problems and three days we have completely to ourselves to do whatever we need to recharge,” the company website reads. “Thanks to three-day weekends, our team is happier, more committed, refreshed, and ready to go on Mondays.”

Healthwise

In 2021, the nonprofit health education provider was awarded a Top Workplaces 2021 honor by the Idaho Press Top Workplaces, a list based solely on employee feedback — and the company’s four-day workweek policy was a big contributing factor, along with the other in-demand benefits including staff wellness days, a dog-friendly environment, and flexible schedules.

Volt Athletics

Volt, which builds software that helps people work out safely and effectively, adopted a four-day workweek in 2020, and CEO Dan Giuliani says they are never going back. About 96% of Volt’s employees said they felt their own productivity was roughly the same or higher with the shorter week, Giuliani wrotein a company blog.

“We removed 20% of the required time at work and not a single employee felt it decreased the overall level of company productivity,” he explained “That’s wild.”