Four-day work week trial at Toronto tech company led to 'unanticipated' result, CEO says
The CEO of a Toronto tech company says a trial into four-day work weeks has been a big success and the experiment even brought forward an "unanticipated" result.
Ross Wainwright, CEO of Alida, said the software company implemented four-day work weeks for its 500 employees at the start of June and the two-month trial wraps up this week.
Company officials said the decision for the shortened work week came from employee feedback and was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The early results are fantastic," Wainwright told CP24 Wednesday. "The employees are clearly happier and they are more balanced."
Wainwright said the company did not reduce salaries in order to achieve the four-day work week, where everyone has Fridays off.
"This is about getting better balance for our employees and helping to invest in their mental health," he said
Wainwright said the most "unanticipated" result of the trial was how empowered his employees told him they felt knowing the company trusted them to get the job done with a reduced schedule.
"We empowered the employees to get the work done within their schedule," he said. "It's the power of trust that really motivated the employees … The day you should trust your employees is the day you hire them and that trust has gone a long way."
Wainwright said the company will take the next six weeks to review the results of the trial and hopes four-day work weeks will become a permanent part of the company’s benefit package.
He said the trial is also having a "huge impact" on employee retention in a time when companies are struggling with labour shortages.
"Without a doubt, I would urge companies to experiment," he said. "We looked at eight Fridays. It wasn't a huge commitment ... It was just the right thing to do."
Meanwhile, the world’s largest four-day work week experiment is nearing at its halfway point in the U.K.. Organizers behind it say there has been significant improvements to people’s wellbeing.
The trial, which is being conducted through partnerships between 4 Day Week Global and researchers at Cambridge, Boston College and Oxford University, includes approximately 3,300 workers across 70 different companies.
Businesses who are participating, while only working 80 per cent of their usual hours, are seeing no changes in compensation or productivity.
"Anecdotally, companies are suggesting there’s been an overwhelmingly positive experience with revenue and productivity levels, [that have] either maintained or, in some cases, improved," Charlotte Lockhart, the managing director and founder of 4 Day Week Global, a not-for-profit organization that has been working to support the adoption of a four-day work week since 2018, told BNN Bloomberg in a video interview earlier this month.
The trial began in June and will continue until November.
With files from BNN Bloomberg's Daniel Johnson.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Couple randomly attacked, 1 stabbed, by group of teens in Toronto, police say
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
Ron Ellis, who played over 1,000 games with Maple Leafs, dead at 79
Ron Ellis, who played over 1,000 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was a member of Canada's team at the 1972 Summit Series, has died at age 79.
Fort Nelson, B.C., wildfire doubles in size as 3,000-plus ordered to evacuate
The wildfire that sparked Friday and caused evacuation orders for more than 3,000 people in Fort Nelson, B.C., and the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, has grown to nearly 1,700 hectares in size, according to a Saturday morning update from the BC Wildfire Service.
Dutch contestant kicked out of Eurovision hours before tension-plagued song contest final
The Netherlands' contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest was expelled from competition hours before Saturday's final of the pan-continental pop competition, which has been rattled by protests over the participation of Israel.
IN PHOTOS Northern lights dance across the night sky in southern Ont.
From London, to Mildmay, Collingwood and St. Thomas, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
Haitians demand the resignation and arrest of the country's police chief after a new gang attack
A growing number of civilians and police officers are demanding the dismissal and arrest of Haiti's police chief as heavily armed gangs launched a new attack in the capital of Port-au-Prince, seizing control of yet another police station early Saturday.
opinion How to use your credit card as a powerful wealth-building tool
Irresponsibly using a credit card can land you in financial trouble, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says when used properly, it can be a powerful wealth-building tool that can help grow your credit profile and create new opportunities.
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
'We have no judge for you': Man's assault charges dropped weeks before trial due to lack of judges in Toronto
A man who was accused of sexually and physically assaulting a woman had his charges dropped in April, just weeks before he was set to stand trial in Toronto, due to a lack of judges in the region.