More organisations are looking to reduced days to promote work/life balance

A leading charity and major employer is to trial a four day working week.

The British Red Cross employs an estimated 4,000 staff of which 200 will take part in the trial.

It follows extensive staff consultation by the charity and will involve a mix of frontline and support teams.

The aid charity plans to trial the four day week for six months starting from 1 July.  

Laura Roxburgh, senior director of people at the British Red Cross, said: “Our staff work incredibly hard to support those in crisis across the UK and around the world. 

“Their work-life balance is important to us and we are always looking for new ways we can offer greater flexibility and be more productive.

“As part of this some teams across the British Red Cross are taking part in a pilot to trial a four-day working week. 

“We are in the early stages of this and look forward to learning from the pilot.”

Graham Kent, director of technology at the British Red Cross, said on LinkedIn he saw the trial as an extension of the flexible working routine.

“I believe that in aggregate, we will achieve the same level of output and continuity as with a five-day week," he said. 

“It’s about providing people [with] the flexibility to have a life, blending their work into their life, rather than the other way around.

“We’ll be measuring the success of this in terms of staff engagement, wellbeing (and yes, continuity of output). 

“I believe passionately that the first two measurements lead to the natural success of the third.”

Last year two charities that took part in the world’s biggest four-day week trial moved to the setup permanently.

Scotland’s International Development Alliance and Debt Justice said that they decided to stick with a four-day working week after staff reported improved wellbeing and decreased stress levels during the pilot.

The charities also said they had not seen a drop in their productivity since reducing employees’ working hours.