A trial for a four day working week starts in June and a total of 60 companies have signed up to take part in the pilot.
Giving all employees the option of an extended weekend with no loss of pay, 3,000 staff will enjoy the new way of working.
Run by campaign group 4 Day Week Global, it will run for six months from June 1 this year, reports the The Mirror.
Already some firms in Scotland have been implementing four day working weeks and it is expected that the scheme will improve productivity, with workers more likely to be motivated during the four days of work.
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Staff will continue to receive 100 per cent of their salary for 80 per cent of their time.
Advice Direct Scotland, based in Glasgow have been running a four day working week since 2018 without cutting employees' pay and have praised its success rate.
Glasgow mum Julie Murphy, 32, Dumbarton, a team manager at Advice Direct Scotland, said: “Working a four-day week has provided me with a fantastic work-life balance. I have a young daughter and having three days off a week means I can spend more time with her than I expected.
“It has cost us less in childcare – whilst still earning a full-time salary. This additional time/money has benefited us greatly and we have managed to renovate our house and enjoy trips around Scotland – neither of which would have been possible whilst working a regular five-day week.”
Internationally, in August 2019, Microsoft Japan implemented a four-day week giving 2,300 employees five Fridays off in a row.
The company said productivity jumped 40 per cent, meetings were more efficient, and workers - who were also happier - took less time off.
A four day working week trial was carried in Iceland out between 2015 and 2019 and labelled an “overwhelming success” by researchers.
Workplaces that took part, including hospitals and schools, moved from 40 hour weeks to 36 or 35 hours with some reporting an improved level of productivity among employees.
The trial eventually involved more than 2,500 workers, equal to approximately 1 per cent of Iceland's workforce.
Sixty firms based in the UK will participate in the trial, but just 28 have agreed to be publicly named.
Companies taking part in the four day working week scheme
These employers include:
- Scotland's International Development Alliance - industry body for Scottish charities
- Amplitude - tech firm
- Hutch - game developers
- Yo Telecom - telecoms services
- Adzooma - online marketing company
- Pressure Drop Brewing - brewery
- Happy - workplace consultancy services
- Platten’s Fish and Chips - chip shop in Norfolk
- Eurowagens - car parts retailer
- Bookishly - online book and gifts shop
- Outcomes First Group - education and foster care services
- NeatClean - eco cleaning products firm
- 5 Squirrels - skincare branding consultancy
- Salamandra - animation studios
- Girling Jones - recruitment firm
- AKA Case Management - case management firm
- IE Brand & Digital - marketing company
- Helping Hands - at-home care services
- Trio Media - marketing agency
- Literal Humans - marketing agency
- Physiquipe - rehabilitation tech firm
- Tyler Grange - landscape planning consultancy
- Timberlake Consultants – software engineering firm
- Royal Society of Biology - professional body
- Everledge - tech firm
- Stemette Futures - education organisation
- Comcen - computer supplies retailer
- We Are Purposeful - activism organisation
