Even though just 2% of Scottish employers who have not yet reduced hours plan to reduce working hours without reducing pay over the next three years, a third of Scottish organisations think the four-day week will become a reality in the UK for most workers within the next decade.
A majority of Scottish employers believe that a shift to a four-day week, without reducing pay, would depend on their organisation improving efficiency (63%), or firms boosting the adoption of technology (68%).
This is according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which carried out a survey of 2,000 employers - 144 from Scotland - in addition to using ONS labour force data on people’s working hours.
It’s published amid rising interest in the idea of a four-day week due to the launch in June - by think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week campaign and researchers from UK universities - of a trial involving 70 firms and more than 3,300 workers in the UK.
The Scottish Government is planning to launch its own series of trials in early 2023.
The CIPD research revealed that among those that have reduced working hours, the main drivers were to increase employee wellbeing (36%), decreased demand for products or services (32%), or to help with recruitment and retention (30%).
The report stated that 16% of UK employers have reduced working hours in the last five years, with 10% reducing hours without cutting pay; although in almost half (47%) of the cases the reduction in hours was due to the furlough scheme.
The biggest challenges for UK firms that had reduced hours were that new ways of working did not suit everybody in their organisation (32%), they were unable to achieve the same volume of work as before (30%) and that the task required someone to be present (26%).
Meanwhile, 30% of Scottish workers said they would like to work fewer hours, but only 12% are willing to take a pay cut to achieve this.
The majority of Scottish workers (63.2%) are happy with their working hours, according to the ONS data.
Marek Zemanik, senior public policy adviser for the CIPD in Scotland, said: “The current trials, as well as the future trials planned by the Scottish Government, are a welcome attempt to plug the evidence gap, help provide insights for other employers that would like to make the shift to the four-day week and make a stronger case for the benefits.
“The major sticking point is the need to increase productivity by 25% to make up for the output lost from fewer days of work - this came through in our findings with a majority of employers saying they would need to work smarter and adopt new technology in order to reduce working hours without cutting pay.
“There are also challenges as the cost-of-living crisis starts to bite,“ Zemanik continued, adding: “People in certain industries may very well look to increase their hours to boost their income rather than look to reduce their hours even without a loss of pay.
“Businesses should continue to listen to their workforce, look at the evidence and consider how they can pilot new ways of working and achieve the win-win for staff of working fewer hours without losing pay.”
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