A new four day work week trial will begin across the UK, with 17 businesses and thousands of workers trying out the condensed work week pilot scheme.

The trail, by the 4 Day Week Campaign will see no decrease in pay as workers work one less day a week.

One of the organisations taking part, the British Society for Immunology (BSI), will introduce an optional four day week, reducing hours from 35 across five days down to 32 hours over four days.

To ensure there is enough staff each day for full service across the week, staff can work either Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday.

“We are excited to offer this new benefit to those employees at the BSI who choose to participate, and hope that this will further enhance our working culture, providing staff with the opportunity to improve their work-life balance and making us an even more attractive employer,” said Dr Doug Brown, chief executive of the BSI.

“Of course, it is vital that the quality of service we provide to our members is maintained, and we will regularly review this throughout the pilot to make sure we continue to provide the full coverage of offerings and high-quality customer service that our members rely on us for.”

The trial follows a 4 Day Week Campaign trail that was performed last year, where most participating companies reported that performance and productivity across their business was maintained despite one less day in the office.

Revenue either stayed the same or rose by 1.4%, even.

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Stress and burnout among employees fell dramatically, the study found, with about seven out of ten employees (71%) reporting lower levels of burnout.

People’s mental and physical health reportedly improved, while anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues improved. Employees took less sick days, and work-life balance reportedly improved.

Further, the campaign said that there was a 57% decrease in the potential for an employee to quit.

Following the firs trial, 4 Day Week Campaign says that the number of organisations operating a four-day work week amounts to 200.