Introduction and Purpose: Occupational health research has a sustained focus on employee wellbeing (Schulte & Vainio, 2010) and this focus is also embraced by management scholars, who recognize the value of organizational and HRM practices achieving the dual goals of building employee wellbeing and leading for enhanced productivity and performance (Guerci et al., 2022). The 4-day work week has been advocated for more than five decades. While scholarly research supports employee preference for this work redesign, particularly without compressed hours, recent reviews suggest continued ambiguity in findings (Campbell, 2023). The impact on performance and, in particular, the mechanisms of this impact remain opaque. Drawing on Jobs Demands-Resources theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017), this study sought to develop and investigate a model 4-day work week impact on performance sequentially mediated by increased employee health and wellbeing, and employee engagement.
Method: A 4-day work week intervention, without compressed hours, was implemented in a large health services organization with survey data collected from supervisors and employees at baseline (pre-intervention), two midpoints and an endpoint, 12 months from the baseline measurement. Data from the baseline (T1), midpoints (T2; T3) and endpoint (T4) surveys are analyzed to assess the progression and impact of a 4-day work week intervention.
Results: Analysis of survey data, over four waves, support the hypothesis that engagement in a 4-day work week intervention significantly increases employee performance and that this effect is sequentially mediated by employee health and wellbeing, and engagement. This sequential mediated effect is sustained and significant over time.
Conclusions: Study findings suggest that the impact of the 4-day work week on performance is explained by greater self-assessed employee health and wellbeing precipitating increased work engagement. This suggests the importance of employee health and wellbeing in work designs aimed at increasing performance.