These 2 Companies Tested A 4-Day Workweek & The Results Were Drastically Different

Is a four-day workweek the future? Just like anything else, it depends on who you ask.

The concept of a compressed workweek has quickly gained traction since the pandemic, with work-life balance and flexibility climbing to the top of the priority list for job seekers and employers alike, but to really understand whether the idea can work, you have to look at companies that have tried it.

Among the growing number of businesses to have piloted to the four-day workweek are a diverse set of organizations large and small, across various industries, including several municipalities across Canada.

But, contrary to popular belief, not all companies to test the four-day workweek have actually stuck with it.

Narcity spoke with leaders from two Canadian companies that went public with their trials of a four-day workweek, and the outcomes were drastically different.

The Leadership Agency, a recruitment company with offices in Toronto and New York, still champions the shortened workweek. Alida, a software company with offices in Toronto, Vancouver, the U.S. and around the world, has stepped away from the original concept to create its own unique solutions instead.

The examples in contrast offer an honest look at the four-day workweek, from its more obvious perks to its less-talked-about pitfalls and why it may not be the silver bullet for the future of the workplace.

Introducing the four-day workweek

There aren't many people who would say no to having a long weekend every weekend. That simple reality offered by the four-day workweek is one of the reasons why it's become so popular.

In a recent survey of around 1,000 Canadians conducted by Talent.com, an overwhelming 93% of respondents said they are interested in the four-day workweek — but that came with some fears of being paid less or having to work longer days, with 50% of workers saying the compressed workweek should include less than 36 hours per week.

So, how can a business introduce the four-day workweek properly?

"One of the most critical things in our success is that this wasn't an exchange for something or anything with the employees," The Leadership Agency founder Jamie Savage told Narcity, explaining that the compressed workweek was never a tradeoff for a longer workday, or in exchange for anything like vacation time.

Savage said her company was one of the first in Canada to go on record with the shorter workweek in October 2020. The perk for employees came alongside a radical reorganization for the business, including investments in productivity tools, to ensure the format could work and team members could still deliver results.

Alida, on the other hand, was among a group of companies to join a four-day workweek pilot project in the summer of 2022 as one of several tests being led by a non-profit organization called 4 Day Week Global.

"We didn't actually put any guardrails around it, and the reason behind that is really around trusting our employees," said Tanya Jarrett, the Chief People Officer at Alida. "There wasn't a, 'You've got to work from this time to this time in order to take advantage.' It was more just if you were offered this and you could figure out how to squeeze your work into whatever that looks like for each employee."

She told Narcity the interest in testing out the four-day workweek mainly connected back to the pandemic and employees feeling burnt out.

"We didn't know what the outcome would be. We wanted to go into it open-minded: 'How is this going to work out for us?'" Jarrett explained. "We wanted to truly assess the results with our team before we decided on anything."

The impact

Having operated under the model of a shorter workweek since October 2020, The Leadership Agency has the experience and the statistics that prove why it works for them.

"Making this shift has significantly, positively impacted our business," Savage told Narcity. "Our productivity has increased by 200%. Our revenue has almost doubled. We've won and have been certified as one of the best employers in Canada and we've won top agency of the year."

According to Savage, the proof is in the data that the shorter workweek has not only left on positive mark on her company, but also on the health and organization of her employees.

At Alida, the impact of the pilot wasn't quite the same.

"There were a lot of folks that loved the pilot ... the results did show a lot of positives," Jarrett explained. "But also it showed that it didn't work for everyone at Alida. There were some folks who were telling us that the program inadvertently created more stress, because for some of them, getting their work done in just those four days wasn't always possible."

Rather than committing to the model, Alida's test led to greater discussions about flexibility in the workplace and, eventually, its own adaptation of the compressed workweek in the form of an entirely new employee benefits program.

That program, titled Alida Empowered, offers employees a flexible four-day work week for some of the year, referred to as "Summer Fridays," along with no-meeting Fridays and an unlimited vacation policy.

The outcome

"I think we found that the perfect solution was really to evolutionize the four-day workweek program into one that would allow us to address the needs of all of our employees," Jarrett said regarding the outcome of Alida's pilot project.

The company still offers top-tier benefits but is living proof that not every business or employee adapts well to a shortened work week, as great as it might sound in principle.

Savage may have summed up the model perfectly, describing it as something that requires an "intense" amount of commitment and communication with her employees to ensure they understood how and why it would work.

"When you just let it sit there and hope that it solves all of your problems ... it won't on its own," Savage said bluntly, and further explained how the four-day workweek has been viewed by some as a magical fix for company retention and productivity.

"It takes an entire ecosystem to support a movement like that," she said.

With her company's success under this model, Savage assured that now, there's no turning back.

"I will never take this company back to a five-day workweek," she said. "There's no need to."

The future of the four-day workweek

So what exactly does the future hold for the four-day workweek in Canada and around the world?

While Time Magazine may think 2023 could be the year of the four-day workweek because of the model's benefits for employees, business, and the environment, there's certainly still a contrast of opinion.

"I really, really do believe that it just so depends," Jarrett said, reflecting back Alida's pilot of the workplace model. "It depends on the industry. It depends on the company culture, and honestly, it depends on what the employees want."

In the case of Alida, a greater sense of flexibility beat out the perk of a consistent long weekend.

When asked the same question, The Leadership Agency's founder likened it to how Ford Motor Company decided to shut down its factories for two days per week back in 1926, ultimately giving birth to the 5-day workweek that is now the norm.

"I don't know if this is going to be something that all companies do," Savage said. "I think you'll see more and more companies piloting this."

The four-day workweek has been a success for The Leadership Agency, but Savage guessed it's one of many strategies businesses around the world will adopt to try and stay competitive.

"There's no one size fits all more so than ever," Savage told Narcity. "Change is really the only constant in this future of work."

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.