Six months into a four-day week pilot: the benefits costs nobody put in the business case

We moved all leave accrual to hours before the pilot started and I would strongly suggest it. 152 hours a year rather than 20 days. It removes the public holiday argument as well, because everyone gets the same hours credit regardless of which day they do not work.

I am not convinced converting leave to hours is the clean fix it sounds like. We did it and people read it as a cut, because 20 days became what looked like 16 of their new days. Technically identical time off as a share of the working year. Culturally it cost us more goodwill than the pilot gained in the first two months.

Has anyone looked at what it did to sickness absence and income protection claims? Our insurer asked at renewal whether the definition of normal working hours had changed, because benefit calculations and the deferred period reference it. Nothing has changed in the premium yet but the question surprised us.

On absence: ours fell from 6.1 days per person to 4.4 across the pilot group, against no change in the control group. Some of that is people booking appointments on the fifth day rather than taking sick leave, which I would count as a real saving.

Helpful, all of it. The part-timer point is the one we have not solved and I suspect we will end up where the charity did. We have not had the insurer question yet, so I will raise it before renewal rather than wait. Will report back at twelve months.