Results of world's biggest four-day work week trial are in

 The biggest trial of a four-day working week in the world has been applauded for being a "major breakthrough" after the majority of companies involved in the pilot scheme, conducted in Britain, said they won't return to the five-day standard.

The trial saw 61 UK companies across a wide variety of sectors commit to reducing working hours for all their employees by 20%, for six months from last June - while ensuring there was no reduction in wages.

Out of the 61 firms participating, 56 said they plan to continue with the shorter week, 18 confirmed the policy has become a permanent change, and just three said they had put the four-day standard on hold for the time being.

The impressive findings will be presented Tuesday to lawmakers at an event in the House of Commons as campaigners and academics urge them to offer every worker in the country a 32-hour working week.

As part of the results of the pilot scheme, academics found a major drop in the rates of stress and illness among the approximately 2,900 staff trying a four-day working week. The number of sick days taken during the trial saw a major drop, while nearly 39% of participating employees revealed they were less stressed compared with the start of the pilot scheme.

Despite the trial being carried out amid a period when workers have been frequently quitting in search of greater flexibility, employees from the participating firms were much more likely to stay in their jobs.

With the new schedule, workers reported massive improvements in a number of underrated areas. While levels of anxiety, burnout, and difficulty sleeping witnessed substantial reduction, more staff reported greater ease with balancing care responsibilities.

Apart from successfully retaining the majority of their staff and bringing in more workplace productivity, the participating UK companies also saw a slight increase in company revenue by 1.4% on average over the trial period, and by 35% when compared with the same period the previous year.

However, a number of employees at one large firm raised concerns over increasing workloads, struggling to work through lengthy to-do lists in the time available, or finding their work intensified.

Some managers and staff, according to the findings of the pilot scheme, also felt the growing emphasis on efficiency had made the workplace less sociable, which proved to be a major concern for the creative companies involved.