Portugal: how companies successfully experimented with a four-day week

Featured image of the article Portugal: how companies successfully experimented with a four-day week
After a year of experimentation, a number of Portuguese companies have adopted the four-day week. They are seeing productivity levels maintained as well as an improvement in employee commitment and loyalty, and a reduction in the number of absences, thanks in particular to a better work-life balance. To achieve these results, companies have had to adapt their working methods.
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After the experimental phase, Crioestaminal, a 70-employee biotech company specialising in stem cell storage, returned to the five-day week. However, the firm’s staff wanted to return to the four-day week, and were granted it because the results had been conclusive, explains HR director Alexandra Beirão Mendes. “The level of sales was our major indicator for deciding whether to continue. During the trial period of the four-day week, the call-center, through which we make our sales, was as...

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