Lessons from the four-day week: Inside the beauty and fashion brand trials

To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. What would you do with a three-day weekend? Workers across the world are being asked to consider this, as trials for a four-day working week are explored internationally. Early adopters include Microsoft in Japan; Unilever in New Zealand; and a host of other small and mid-size fashion and beauty brands. Extensive trials in Iceland — which involved up to one per cent of its working population from 2015 to 2019 — found that shorter weeks gave workers more time for family, hobbies and rest, with particularly positive results for single parents and women in heterosexual relationships, whose partners took on a more equitable share of domestic responsibilities. As a result of these trials, 86 per cent of Iceland’s entire working population have either gained the right to shorter hours or actually moved to them. The potential benefits go further than individual happiness and productivity. One study found that a four-day week could shrink the UK’s carbon footprint by 127 million tonnes per year by 2025. UK skincare brand Inlight Beauty says it has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 14.6 per cent since dropping to 4.5 days, with additional savings on its energy and water bills. Other fashion and beauty brands are trialling it from Spanish fashion label Desigual to US fintech startup Bolt, a one-click checkout provider used by Forever21 and Badgley Mischka. Advocates for degrowth – a planned reduction of the economy to bring it within planetary boundaries – say reduced working hours may also help curb the production and consumption of new goods. When coupled with remote and flexible working, a four-day week could also lead to more employment of disabled talent. That’s a growing pool post-pandemic, points out Ellen Jones, a change-enabler at inclusive workplace consultancy Utopia. “The high levels of burnout and absenteeism during the pandemic showed that people are not machines, but the disabled community has been talking about this for years,” she says. “A four-day week with no loss of pay to workers has been a long-standing demand of the trade union movement, which won us the two-day weekend almost a century ago,” says Joe Ryle, campaign director at advocacy and advisory group Four Day Week Campaign in the UK. Over 500 UK-based companies have registered their interest for the organisation’s upcoming trial, which will run for six months from June. The end goal is for government legislation to implement a maximum work week of 32 hours (the limit currently stands at 48 hours, averaged over 17 weeks). Short-term pilots help work out the kinks A big driver for the four-day week is putting productivity over presenteeism, the culture of showing up at the workplace to be seen without necessarily being productive. Ahead of pilots, businesses should conduct an audit of their working practises, says Jack Kellam of independent research organisation Autonomy. This can help determine which meetings could be replaced by email exchanges, which processes could be streamlined, and which employees are bearing too much of the workload. Bolt made the four-day week permanent after a 90-day trial from September to December 2021. An overwhelming 94 per cent of employees voted in favour of the policy, according to the company, with 86 per cent said they were more efficient, 84 per cent noted better work-life balance, and 80 per cent reported significantly reduced meeting times. “It’s not about condensing our work week into four days — it’s about prioritising, shifting unnecessary meetings and focusing on impact,” says Bolt chief people officer Jennifer Christie. “But, it took time to break decades-long working habits, which is why we recommend a trial period.” While small-scale trials have shown positive results, there isn’t currently a single data set that spans industries, cultures and jurisdictions.The team at Four Day Week Global is working on this: it currently has trials running with 20 companies in Ireland, 35 in the US, and another soon to begin in the UK during which Oxford University, Cambridge University and Boston College will measure the impact with staff surveys and interviews. “It’s easy to see how this works in offices, but we need more examples in retail and hospitality,” says CEO Charlotte Lockhart. “More data also means we can provide mentors and resources for businesses taking part in the trials to learn from each other.” Teething problems vary across sectors Challenges will vary across sectors and divisions, says Kellam of Autonomy. Customer-facing or service-providing roles may need to adopt shifts or rotas, so the business can operate seven days a week even if individual employees only work four. Others might need to take on more staff to make shorter hours feasible. “I was initially concerned that I would not be able to achieve my workload in four days, but the company hired a junior designer which resolved my fears,” says Elspeth Mills, lead designer at Lucy & Yak, a playful dungarees brand based in Brighton, UK. “It has motivated me to work harder throughout the four days, occasionally staying late to finish bits off, but knowing it’s worthwhile because I have Fridays off. It’s important to look at an employee’s job specification and work out whether it’s achievable for them.” Spanish brand Desigual first trialled a four-day week with head office staff in September 2021, making it permanent in December after 86 per cent of employees voted in favour. While most campaigners push for reduced hours without reduced pay, the brand cut salaries by 6.5 per cent for 13 per cent less time at work. Retail staff are also benefitting. “We didn’t want to launch this unless we had an alternative for retail staff, so we’re adjusting their work schedules to allow for at least one free weekend per month, and holidays approved in advance,” explains Desigual’s people director Coral Alcaraz. “We still have a lot of work to do to get this right.” Inlight Beauty is giving staff Friday afternoons off while it reorganises production schedules, but hopes to offer a full four-day week by the end of 2022. Its part-time staff opted for a pay rise over shorter working hours or extra holiday. “We’re driven by the quantity of production, and it has taken a few months to reorganise the workflow,” says managing director Loredana Spiezia. “We bought an extra oven to buy us time during the day and reorganised rotas.” It’s important to listen to employee feedback and adapt accordingly, says Lockhart. She says one fashion retailer created an app for employees to share and swap shifts while a manufacturing plant allowed employees to redesign their overnight shifts to fit five days’ work into four. A full shift to four-day working won’t suit every company. Period care brand Ohne doesn’t work a four-day week yet, but once a month, the whole company takes a day off for wellness, with each employee allocated £50-100 (depending on whether they are part-time or full) to spend on whatever they choose, be it therapy, a gym membership or an afternoon of culture. It also offers unlimited holidays, with a minimum of 28 days per year. “We’re trying to find the balance between being a fast-growing startup with all hands on deck and giving our team time off that genuinely benefits them,” co-founder Leah Remfry-Peploe explains. “We track tasks, not time.” A cross-sector challenge is how deeply ingrained overworking can be, says Kellam. To surmount this, leaders need to role-model the change and share content around how they make it work for them. “If everyone else is working four days, but the boss comes in every Friday, this doesn’t work,” he says. “It’s a lot harder to shift culture if it only applies to part of the business.” Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: How Gen Z entrepreneurs cope with growing pains Kering and J Crew call for urgent investment in regenerative agriculture Dolce & Gabbana goes fur-free, following Moncler

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