A lower rate of burnout, increased productivity and a better work-life balance are just some of the benefits of a four-day working week, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Activist Joe O'Connor said it creates "happier and more focused employees", and a lower rate of employee turnover.
He is the chairperson of the campaign group, Four Day Week Ireland.
Mr O'Connor told the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment that it also creates more opportunities for women as it allows men to spend more time at home.
"There is no correlation between working longer hours and greater productivity," he said, adding that often the reverse is true.
A four day week would also lower emissions by 16%, he said.
And he insisted that it is "not about lazy workers wanting more time off". Rather, it is a sensible work strategy, Mr O'Connor added.
Margaret Cox is the Director of ICE Recruitment, a small firm based in Galway, and an IBEC member.
She told the committee that all her employees have a three-day weekend, which includes either Monday or Friday.
A trial period allowed them to work out how to cover gaps. And they do not take on additional staff to cover them. But more staff were soon hired as business boomed.
The four-day week has "proved commercially successful", Ms Cox said.
Perpetual Guardian, a firm in New Zealand, switched to the shorter week in 2018.
It reported that productivity among its 240 staff had risen by 20%.
'Counter productive', business group says
Ibec agreed that the four-day week has merits, but cautioned that it would not suit all businesses.
"The imposition of a four-day week would be counter productive", Maeve McElwee, Director of Employer Relations at Ibec, told the committee.
She noted that the Wellcome Trust - "the UK's second largest research donor foundation" - had abandoned plans to introduce a four day week.
It had proved to be "too operationally complex", she said.
Joe O'Connor said research indicates that three-quarters of people support the Government exploring the issue, as do two-thirds of businesses.
Almost half of employers - 46% - said it would be feasible to trial a four-day week, he added. It works when employees are encouraged to "work smarter rather than longer".
A four-day week can also be used as a "point of entry" into improving productivity, Mr O'Connor said.
He said flexibility is crucial and cautioned against a "one-size-fits-all" approach, a view echoed by Ibec.
Microsoft Japan increased productivity by almost two-fifths during a four-day week pilot scheme, he added.
However, Ms McElwee said that the firm had run into difficulties, and that the trial "has not been recommenced".
The Four Day Week Ireland campaign will roll out a six month trial early next year.
Mr O'Connor said they will ensure "tangible supports" are available to those employers who participate.
There has been "an exceptional response" with "over 100 companies" expressing interest in joining the trial, he told the committee.
Ms McElwee warned that a four-day week involves "increased costs for employers, complexities in its management and disruption for its service users".
But she pointed to an increase in remote working with 81% of employees surveyed in May 2021 saying they will be using a hybrid working model going forward.
And she added that there quarters of employers foresee an increase in the use of hybrid working.
Ms McElwee said the National Remote Working Strategy "will further galvanise the evolution of the remote and flexible working landscape".
