RESEARCHERS analyzing the world’s largest-ever trial of a four-day working week have declared the policy an “overwhelming success.”

Between 2015 and 2019, 2,500 workers in Iceland – around 1 percent of the country’s population – switched to a compressed working week.

Government employees stayed on the same pay but moved to 35 or 36 hours spread over four days, as opposed to 40 hours spread over five in most cases.

The data from the four-year experiment has been fully analyzed for the first time – and it’s good news for people who like the sound of a three-day weekend.

Productivity remained the same or improved in most workplaces, it didn’t cost the employer any extra money, and worker wellbeing “dramatically increased” due to a drop in stress and a better work-life balance.

Even before the full findings were released, the new way of working has become a hit in Iceland: 86 percent of the country’s workforce are “now working shorter hours or gaining the right to shorten their hours.”

The landmark study, which was compiled jointly by U.K. think tank Autonomy and Icelandic organization Alda, said the effect on overall wellbeing among the workforce was “profound.”

As well as reducing burnout, the study showed shorter working weeks allowed a more even share of domestic responsibility in heterosexual couples and benefited “time poor” single parents.

Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy, called on U.K. employers to sit up and take notice. He said: “This study shows that the world’s largest-ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector was by all measures an overwhelming success.

“It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks – and lessons can be learned for other governments.

“Iceland has taken a big step toward the four-day working week, providing a great real-life example for local councils and those in the U.K. public sector considering implementing it here in the U.K.”

Similar experiments are ongoing in Spain and New Zealand, and the U.K. Labour Party included the policy in its 2019 manifesto.

Icelandic researcher Gudmundur D. Haraldsson, from Alda, said the experiment “tells us that not only is it possible to work less in modern times, but that progressive change is possible too.” (SD-Agencies)