Four-day workweek: policy template and checklist
How to design a four-day workweek pilot: coverage, pay, scheduling, legal review, and the metrics that tell you whether it works.
A four-day workweek is not simply a shorter week. It is a redesign of coverage, meetings, and priorities. The teams that succeed treat it as an operating change with a pilot and clear measures.
What a four-day week means
Decide whether the model is four longer days, four standard days with reduced pay, or a full-time salary with a compressed schedule. Each version has different legal and operational consequences.
Policy decisions
The policy needs to answer who is eligible, how coverage is maintained, how client-facing roles are handled, and what happens during peak periods.
- Eligibility and exceptions
- Pay and benefits
- Coverage and on-call
- Meeting and communication norms
- Overtime and time tracking
Coverage and scheduling
Not every team can close on the same day. Stagger days off, define a core collaboration window, and make handoffs explicit.
Customer support, finance, and operations may need a different schedule from project teams. Do not pretend one rule fits every function.
Pilot and metrics
Run a pilot with one or two teams for 8–12 weeks. Measure output, client response times, sick leave, turnover, and employee feedback before deciding to scale.
- Output and delivery against plan
- Client and customer response times
- Meeting load and focus time
- Sick leave and burnout indicators
- Employee preference and retention
Four-day workweek checklist
Use this checklist before the pilot and at the review.
- Choose the model and pay approach
- Review legal and contractual issues
- Define eligibility and exceptions
- Design coverage and handoffs
- Set pilot metrics and a review date
- Train managers on the new norms
- Collect feedback and decide whether to scale
Four-day week and related schedules
The four-day workweek is one version of a broader move toward compressed workweeks, 32-hour weeks, reduced-hours schedules, and flexible work policies. The design questions are coverage, pay, client response time, and whether the model is a pilot or a permanent change.