Moving to a four-day week could cut Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs staff turnover by more than half and save millions in recruitment costs, the civil service’s biggest union has said.
A survey by the union of more than 1,200 Defra officials found overwhelming support for a four-day work week, with 80% of all respondents saying it would benefit their health and wellbeing.
And the union has estimated the potential savings from the move could exceed £23m by cutting down on staff turnover.
Analysis by Defra statisticians in the union estimates the annual cost of excessive churn, including recruitment,training and lost productivity, at between £5.7m and £23.3m. At the high end, the figure is equivalent to Defra’s flood defence budget for Northumbria, or the department's total Official Development Assistance expenditure.
This figure is based on Institute for Government modelling from 2019, which estimated that excessive turnover costs the civil service £74.4m each year in recruitment, training and lost productivity. PCS has updated the figures in its own analysis to reflect an increase in salaries, staff numbers and turnover since 2016-17, the year the IfG looked at.
The actual cost of excess churn could in fact be higher, PCS said, as its analysis excludes AA, AO, and EO roles and does not account for all intangible costs, such as loss of institutional memory.
Research by the left-wing think tank Autonomy meanwhile found that turnover fell by 57% at companies that participated in the UK's biggest-ever four-day week trial. The trial ran across 61 companies and ran from June to December 2022.
PCS's report says that were those results replicated in Defra, turnover would drop from 15.6% in 2022-23 – the latest data for which figures are available – to 6.7%. It said this could save £3.6m in recruitment costs alone, based on figures included in a 2023 National Audit Office report on recruitment, pay and performance management.
PCS said the figures are an “indication of the potential efficiency gains from a four-day week”, adding that its research so far has focused primarily on benefits to members.
It said its next step in the campaign, “agreed constructively with Defra”, will be to examine the value for money implications of a change in working pattern.
The Autonomy research also found the average number of sick and personal days taken by the 2,900 workers in the trial fell from two days a month to 0.7 – a 65% drop. A similar reduction in Defra would mean a drop in average working days lost per employee from 4.3 to 1.5, PCS said.
“As well as the obvious benefits to the employee of not getting sick, this would mean 2.8 working days gained per employee. Factoring in the reduction of hours for a four-day week, this would be the equivalent of gaining 328 employees,” the report said, noting that the figure is equivalent to over half the workforce of the departmental agency the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science.
'A win-win for workers and employers'
The union asked 1,266 staffers to answer the question: “How would a four-day week benefit your life?”. It then analysed the text responses and categorised the responses. Nearly a third of respondents said the shorter work week mentioned productivity benefits, while 16% said there would be upsides for carers.
The benefit mentioned by members most frequently was “work/life balance”, with others saying a three-day weekend would enable them to better manage existing long-term health conditions or avoid burnout.
Respondents also cited the financial savings from cutting down on commuting and childcare, and said cutting hours but maintaining pay could be a way to make Defra a more competitive employer and cut down on churn.
Survey respondents drew links between improved wellbeing and productivity, saying it could help to reduce burnout, decrease stress and give them more time to work on my physical and mental health.
One official working a nine-day fortnight using compressed hours who responded to the survey said their four-day weeks are “no less productive than the five-day weeks, as I am often drained by the fifth day and have lower levels of concentration”.
Respondents also pointed to having more time to spend on training outside of work as a potential benefit, and said it could push civil servants to adopt more effective ways of working.
In an introduction to the report, PCS 4-Day Week campaign director Joe Ryle said: “By building a campaign for a four-day week that makes all the arguments for why it’s a win-win for workers and employers, and also backs them up with clear demonstrations of commitment, members at PCS Efra are making sure they don’t get left behind as society shifts to a shorter week.”
Ryle said work to implement a four-day week at South Cambridgeshire District Council, among other initiatives had helped to demonstrate that “where public funds struggle to match private pay offers, a reduced working week can provide a different kind of boost for workers, and one that doesn’t sacrifice productivity”.
SCDC's 15-month trial of a 32-hour week was the largest public sector trial of a four-day work week to date. The trial, which began in January last year, saw turnover drop by 39%, “substantially reducing” the department's recruitment needs, with annual savings estimated at £371,500.
PCS's research comes nearly a year after a group of Defra civil servants submitted a petition to departmental leaders calling for a pilot scheme to test benefits to productivity and staff welfare. PCS, which backed the bid along with the 4 Day Week Campaign, said at the time that its proposal would involve a 20% reduction in working hours for staff with no loss of wages.
Today’s report does not explore how a four-day week in Defra would work in practice. PCS said it would address such questions in the next phase of its campaign.
“Ultimately, to answer all the questions about how a four-day week would work across the Defra employers, we need our own independently evaluated pilot,” it said.
The briefing said PCS’s Efra group is campaigning for the department to “test and learn from an idea, not jump immediately to a fundamental change in the working week”.
“If successful, a four-day week would benefit the employer and employees whilst delivering value for money for the public,” it said. “We believe that the benefits of a happier healthier workforce, combined with lower staff turnover, lower contingent labour costs, and improvements to how we organise our time, will more than compensate the department.”
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “We’ve long argued the social, practical and professional benefits of a four-day week, now this research shows the financial benefits too.
“It also suggests that any opposition to employees working a four-day week is purely ideological. Why else would an employer stand in the way of progress?
“Our members are resolute in their belief that a four-day week is critical to attaining a good quality of life, improving their health and well-being and helping them to meet caring responsibilities, while all the time increasing their productivity.”