What is the 100:80:100™ rule for the 4 day week?

What does 100:80:100™ model mean when trialing a 4 day week?

The 100:80:100™ model refers to 100% pay for 80% of your time while maintaining 100% output. It is trademarked by 4 Day Week Global as we are responsible for creating the 100:80:100™ model in 2018.

Where did the 100:80:100™ model come from?

Our founders, Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart, chose this approach when trialing a 4 day week in Perpetual Guardian in New Zealand. The trial was such a success and received a lot of media attention. They attributed part of the success to the 100:80:100™ approach for a 4 day week and decided to use it as a framework to advise other organizations and companies when trialing the 4 day week.

Charlotte speaks about the 100:80:100™ principle in this interview.

What does a 100:80:100™ 4 day week look like?

We believe that a 4 day week is a 32-hour week, or 4x8-hour days of work. While many of the companies which trial the 4 day week decide to adopt the Friday-off model, this doesn’t necessarily work for all. 

Different industries require different approaches. For example, organizations introducing a 4 day week to customer service centers would need to rotate the day off among their staff so as to maintain service levels.

The South Africa first 4 day week pilot which took place in 2023 was a good example of companies trying different approaches to ‘Fridays off’. You can read more about the approach and the findings in this pioneering report here.

The importance of maintaining output and productivity in the 100:80:100™ rule

Our pilot results prove that productivity increases when a 4 day week is implemented. It is crucial that the output is maintained to successfully implement a 4 day week using the 100:80:100™ principle.

This also creates a culture shift in the company. When you tell your employees that their output is more important than the time they take to complete it, then they will be more focused and therefore, more productive.