The Mental Health Foundation (MHF) has permanently adopted a four-day working week following a successful year-long pilot.
In April 2024, MHF piloted a 32-hour working week, or proportionate reduction for part-time staff, with no loss of pay.
In a report published today, MHF announced that following the pilot, evaluation and rigorous discussion, it had made the shorter week permanent and part of staff contracts.
MHF said most of its 98 employees had implemented a four-day working week in practice, with 94% working no more than three extra hours per week and half sticking fully to their new contracted hours.
“Fewer people are working excess hours than pre-pilot, reflecting a broader culture shift,” the report says.
“However, a large proportion of employees still work over their contracted hours.
“Flexibility is an important feature of work at MHF for many staff who deliver public-facing activities, work with external partners or experience workload fluctuations related to seasonal activities and events – and is often welcomed.”
Adjustments included new core working hours of 10am to 3pm, Tuesday to Thursday, for full-time staff, while other agreements were made among the senior management team (SMT) and other managers about the best ways to pick up urgent work during the week.
Recruitment and retention benefits
The charity’s report says the 32-hour working week has delivered “rich and substantial benefits” to employees’ wellbeing and reduced inequalities without reducing productivity.
Nearly eight in 10 staff who responded to MHF’s surveys reported a better work/life balance following the pilot, while 68% said their mental wellbeing had improved.
Some 64% reported greater overall life satisfaction, 69% said their work-related stress had decreased and 55% reported greater productivity and 55% greater ability to manage their workload.
MHF also saw benefits to the recruitment and retention of staff, with the mean number of applications per role nearly doubling from 20.1 in 2023-24 to 38.9 in the first half of 2024-25.
“This may be due in part to a downturn in the charity job market, but the 32-hour week appears to be a stronger attractor for job applicants than the salary package, cited by 28% of applicants,” the report reads.
The pilot appeared to have contributed to reductions in the number of employees intending to leave. In March 2024, 33% of respondents said they had seriously considered leaving their job in the past two weeks, compared with 15% in March 2025.
The report says any negative impacts of the switch, such as difficulties in arranging meetings or uncertainty about cover for urgent reactive work, “aren’t widespread, and don’t appear to be affecting the ability to meet strategic objectives”.
“In particular, external partnership working is reportedly unaffected, particularly due to flexible working. Some employees do describe periods of workload strain,” it says.
“SMT raised some queries about the impact of new working hours on cover and collaboration, where reported impacts are more mixed, but the balance is still positive.”
Results ‘better than expected’
The report concludes that there is “better workplace morale and people feel more valued”.
“The pilot potentially offsets other wellbeing challenges, including around strategic uncertainty and personnel instability,” it says.
“Across interview and pulse survey data, many employees expressed increased appreciation of MHF as an employer in connection with the pilot, including feeling valued and believing that MHF genuinely cares about employee wellbeing and them as a ‘whole person’.
“This has benefited personal dedication to the organisation and there’s a sense of better workplace culture and a more positive atmosphere, with people ‘happier’, ‘more positive’, ‘chirpier’, ‘thankful’ and ‘grateful’.”
MHF’s chief executive Mark Rowland said: “With levels of workplace stress and burnout still at epidemic levels across the UK, we undertook this pilot with the aim of sustaining great performance and improving the mental health and wellbeing of our staff.
“Importantly, productivity has remained stable or improved during the pilot and in many cases, the standard of our work has increased through better prioritisation and ways of working.
“The strength of the results of the pilot was even better than expected which is why we have now made the pilot permanent.
“We’re delighted from a leadership perspective that this has had such a positive impact on both our work and staff.”
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