Medibank expands 4-day work week trial to hundreds more employees

Australian insurance firm Medibank has announced that it is doubling the number of participants in its four-day work week initiative following a successful trial.

In a statement, the insurer said it is adding 250 Medibank employees to the four-day work week and plan to raise the total participants to 500.

Medibank first introduced the four-day work week trial in 2023, where employees receive 100% of their pay despite reducing their work hours to 80%.

Four-day work week benefits

Kylie Bishop, Medibank Group Lead – People, Spaces & Sustainability, said the initiative has delivered "significant and sustained improvements" since the trial was launched.

"We've seen significant and sustained improvements in employee engagement, job satisfaction, and the health and well-being of participants, while maintaining business performance and customer outcomes," Bishop said in a statement.

Among the benefits the trial brought about are:

• Increased satisfaction (+4.5%) and engagement (+6.7%) among participants
• Increased performance (+3.6%) and more willingness to go above and beyond (+6.7%)
• Improved psychological detachment and people feeling like they can switch off from work (+10.4%)
• Improved resilience (+9.2%)
• Lower work-to-family conflict (-31.4%)
• An increase in overall health (+16.3%)
• Lower frequency of unhealthy eating (-17.5%) and sleep disturbances (-29.9%)
• Reduced time spent on unproductive and low-value work, and more investment in efficient processes
• Higher feelings of confidence among participants
• Clearer focus among employees on shared objectives

According to Medibank, work is underway to determine which teams will join the next phase of the trial.

"Medibank is applying a robust process to identify these next participants, working together with Four Day Week Global and Macquarie University about the ideal characteristics of these teams," it said in a statement.

'Work. Reinvented'

Medibank's four-day work week trial is part of the company's larger cultural change programme titled "Work. Reinvented."

The programme seeks to challenge conventional workplace norms and increase flexibility for employees while maintaining performance and customer satisfaction, according to Medibank.

"Our four-day work week experiment is just one of the ways we're innovating to drive greater autonomy in the workplace and support better decision-making for customers," Bishop said.

"Australia is undergoing a health transition, and Medibank has an enormous role to play. Our health system needs innovation, and we all need to move faster to respond. The key to this is transforming how we work."