Mental Health Foundation (MHF) has adopted a flexible four-day working week permanently following a year long pilot.

The move has been taken after the 32-hour working week pilot, which concluded in April, highlighted improvements in the mental health and wellbeing of staff and found no negative impact on productivity.

Seven in ten reported less work-related stress and four in five said their work-life balance had improved, according to evaluation of the pilot.

This left staff with more time “for family, exercise…and cheesemaking”, said the charity.

All workers, including part time employees who were given a proportionate reduction in hours, were involved in the pilot with no loss of pay.

Under this model staff are free to choose how to structure their 32 hours a week, which can “help to support caring and parenting responsibilities”, said the charity.

The pilot also revealed that just under seven in ten staff said their mental wellbeing had improved and more than two in three said they had “a greater sense of life satisfaction”.

Recruitment and retention

Recruitment and retention has also improved, with the number of applications nearly doubled compared to the previous year.

More than one in four applicants said the 32-hour week at the charity was one of their top two reasons for applying.

There has also been a 50% reduction in staff expressing an intention to leave.

“With levels of workplace stress and burnout still at epidemic levels across the UK, we undertook this pilot with the aim of sustaining great performance and improving the mental health and wellbeing of our staff,” said MHF chief executive Mark Rowland.

“Importantly, productivity has remained stable or improved during the pilot and that in many cases the standard of our work had increased through better prioritisation and ways of working.

“The strength of the results of the pilot were even better than expected which is why we have now made the pilot permanent.  We’re delighted from a leadership perspective that this has had such a positive impact on both our work and staff.”

The move has been welcomed by Sam Hunt, business coordinator of the 4 Day Week Foundation, which has awarded the charity its gold standard accreditation.

“Moving to a four-day week gives workers the freedom to be able to live a more balanced, stable and better life,” he said.

“As hundreds of British companies and one local council have already shown, implementation can be a win-win for both workers and employers.

“The 9-5, 5 day working week was invented 100 years ago and no longer suits the realities of modern life. We are long overdue an update.”

Among staff to detail how the reduction in hours has improved their working life is the charity’s HR manager Natalie Frend, who is a single mum.

“I now use the time to go swimming and exercise or just have some down-time,” she said.

“This is a new concept to me as a single mum of two children, having spent the last ten years on my own. It has given me extra space to get chores and life-admin done and has freed up my weekend.”

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