A large-scale, peer-reviewed study has found a four-day working week could reduce employee burnout and improve job satisfaction.
But the research released also found that working fewer hours improved their workplace performance, according to insights gleaned from more than 500 Australian and New Zealand employees.
The findings released on Tuesday follow a series of significant trials of four-day working weeks in nations including the UK, Canada and Germany, and after the Greens proposed a national pilot program during the federal election campaign.
The research by academics at Boston University and published in the Nature Human Behaviour journal investigated experiences at 141 companies testing four-day working weeks with no reduction in employee pay.
The companies across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, the US and UK prepared for the trial by reorganising their operations and eliminating low-value activities such as "unnecessary meetings" for two months, before reducing workers' hours.
Researchers led by Wen Fan and Juliet Schor compared the experience of the 2896 employees to a control group of employees working a typical five-day week.
After six months, those who spent fewer hours at work were less likely to suffer burnout, had a higher rate of job satisfaction and better mental and physical health.
"We find that work time reduction is associated with improvements in employee wellbeing - a pattern not observed in the control companies," the study said.
"Across outcomes, the magnitude is larger for the two work-related measures - burnout and job satisfaction - followed by mental health, with the smallest changes reported in physical health."
Reducing work hours also improved performance and productivity, the employees reported, due to lower levels of fatigue and fewer sleeping problems.
Companies that reduced weekly working hours by eight experienced the biggest gains, the research found, although modest improvements were observed with reductions of between one and four hours.
While the study mirrored findings from similar research, University of Otago academic Paula O'Kane said it provided more evidence that boosting productivity did not necessarily mean boosting workloads.
"Traditionally, time spent working is used a proxy for productivity when, in fact, better rested and healthier people can be more productive in less time," she said.
"While the study centred on a four-day week, the broader implication is clear: flexible and potentially individualised working arrangements can deliver similar benefits."
The findings come as the federal government prepares to hold its Economic Reform Roundtable in Canberra to investigate ways to boost Australia's productivity and create a more sustainable, resilient economy.
Labour productivity fell by one per cent in the year to March, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, even though the number of hours worked rose by 2.3 per cent.
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