An experiment with a four-day workweek at Microsoft Japan found that employees were more productive even though they worked one less day each week, according to the Washington Post.
Employee productivity increased by 40%, and overhead costs such as electricity and paper printing decreased, the Post reported.
Microsoft is following in the footsteps of numerous smaller companies that have experimented with making the switch to a four-day workweek, according to FOX Business.
Here’s how the experiment worked:
Every Friday in August, Microsoft closed their Japan offices as part of their “Work Life Choice Challenge,” according to CNN.
The goal was to promote a healthier work-life balance, as Japanese culture has a dangerous tendency toward overwork, CNN reported.
Microsoft focused on specific areas to promote a healthier balance for employees, according to CNN, including:
- Reducing the workweek to four days and giving employees a day off every Friday.
- Capping meetings to no longer than 30 minutes.
- Encouraging employees to communicate more efficiently by using Microsoft’s online messaging app instead of meeting in person, where possible.
These were the results:
During the time of Microsoft’s experiment, the number of sales per employee went up by 40% compared to the same month the previous year, the Washington Post reported.
What’s more, 94% of employees who participated said they were satisfied with the program, according to the Post.
Microsoft also reported that they reduced costs during this time because electricity usage fell by 23%, and the number of pages that were printed fell by 59%, according to the Post.
Microsoft is planning on doing another test run of the program in the winter.
Microsoft’s not the only company to try out a lighter work schedule
A test run of a program that allowed employees to work four days a week while still being paid for five proved so successful for New Zealand-based company, Perpetual Guardian, that they have since implemented the program full time, according to People magazine.
A city in Sweden has successfully tested a six-hour workday, while in America, restaurant chain Shake Shack has experimented with a four-day workweek, FOX Business reported.
What experts have to say
Shorter work times can make employees more productive, some time management experts say, according to FOX Business.
“It’s the power of the deadline,” Rashelle Isip, a productivity consultant and author of “31 Easy Ways to Get Organized in the New Year,” told FOX Business. “You can always drag something out — a task or a project — but when there’s a hard deadline, the structure can help people focus to accomplish the task.”
Not everyone is sold on the idea of shortening the workweek, however.
In the UK, a report was commissioned earlier this year by the Labour Party, which found the idea of a four-day workweek to be “unrealistic,” according to BBC News.