Microsoft: Reducing Work Days, Meetings Leads to 40% More Productivity

The results of a recent test conducted by Microsoft revealed that reducing working days to four days a week, resulted in a jump of about 40% in the company's productivity.

This experience comes amid the efforts of a growing number of companies to test the results of the four-day work business strategy.

Through its Japanese unit, the US company has introduced a program in Japan called "Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019," giving 2,300 employees every Friday off. The results showed that productivity increased by 39.9%.

In addition, the special paid holiday did not come at the expense of any other vacation time.

Microsoft closed its workplace every Friday in August, giving employees an extra day off each week.

The results from this experiment were very positive. While working time has shrunk sharply, productivity measured in terms of turnover per employee rose by almost 40% compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, the company urged managers to reduce their time spent in meetings and communication via e-mail, saying that the meeting should not last more than 30 minutes.

More than 90 percent of Microsoft's employees in Japan said they were affected by the new measures.

With the closure of the workplaces weekly an extra day, the company was able to save in some other sources such as electricity, heating, water consumption.

The company explained that with work days reduced by 25 percent in August compared to August 2018, there was a saving in the number of pages printed by 58.7% and electricity costs decreased by 23.1%.

At the same time, Microsoft plans to repeat the experience in Japan again later this year.