20 • HR & Recruitment


Dropping the hours I


n 1930, eminent economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2030, rising productivity


would allow people to work just 15 hours a week. We’re five years out from the deadline, and almost two-thirds of UK workers still toil assiduously for five long days. A small tranche of the UK


working population is making progress by successfully working just four days — 10% to be exact. Some 1.4 million workers in the UK have dropped a day from their working week, the Office for National Statistics revealed in September, an increase of 100,000 since 2019. Autonomy — a British think


tank — and the aptly named 4 Day Week Foundation both encourage employers to give the idea a chance. The latter’s latest trial kicked off in November last year; 17 British businesses took part. After six months, 12 companies decided to keep the four-day week, with the remainder choosing a nine-day fortnight. Of the 61 organisations that took part in Autonomy’s 2022 UK four-day week pilot, at least 54 organisations were still operating the policy a year later.


ALL HANDS ON DECK Serial technology entrepreneur Martin Port, who is currently building his fourth business, implemented a four-day week at his last company. “It was definitely a contributing factor to us reaching a valuation of £350m,” he says of his Leeds-based mobile workforce management platform BigChange, which was acquired in 2024. It’s not for everyone, he warns:


“BigChange worked with tradesmen at businesses of all sizes, so we saw that for people doing a manual job — electricians, plumbers, joiners — revenue is based on time on the tools. It’s much harder to drop those hours.” Now, a year into his latest start-


up — the AI-powered customer engagement platform Build Concierge — only two out of the 20 employees currently work four days. “When you’re building a new business, everyone needs to give their all until you reach a tipping point,” he explains. Shai Aharony, CEO of search


agency Reboot Online, made the switch in 2021. He said since implementing the four-day


Te Finance & Business Guide - brought to you by APL Media • Wednesday 22 October 2025


And on the fifth day, we rested. In the age of big tech, are we edging closer to a four-day working week? Words: Rebecca Burn-Callander


workweek scheme, their revenue per employee rose from £3,000 to £7,000, while overall business revenue increased by £2.1m. “Planned staff retention has risen


from 63% to 94%, and the number of sick days has dropped to 1.1 per person, compared to the UK average of 4.4 days.”


LESS TIME, MORE PRODUCTIVITY According to the Centre for Economic Policy Research, mankind has yet to reap the benefits of much- vaunted productivity tools like ChatGPT. Its 2025 study analysed the working hours of people in jobs with an “exposure to AI” and found that they had “longer working hours and reduced leisure time”. As you add more AI into the mix, “its effect on working hours intensifies,” the authors concluded. Martin Port believes this is about


to change. “AI can do more than crunch data — it can take calls and chat to customers, even when you’re unavailable,” he says. “We’re at the point where AI can take care of all repetitive or formulaic work, so people can finally be more productive and work less.”


OFFICE WORKING/GETTY


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