From a four-day week to compressed hours, flexible working has become much more common in the UK grocery sector in recent years.

With many major supermarkets trialling a range of different options, it’s a positive step to see retailers putting a greater level of focus on the work/life balance of staff. However, there has been much tinkering to get the model right, with Asda scrapping its four-day week trial earlier this month after staff claimed that longer shifts from condensed hours were “physically demanding”.

We take a look at what’s being offered at the UK’s leading supermarkets and which is the best option for the retail sector.

Back in 2020, Morrisons introduced a four-day working week, which required staff in its Bradford head office to work 13 Saturdays across the year.

However, as this had not been favoured among head office workers, the supermarket switched to a four-and-a-half-day week in February, which saw around 2,000 staff members continuing to work 37.5 hours, however Saturday working is no longer required.

In January 2023, M&S launched its Worklife scheme, which offers over 3,000 retail managers the option to choose whether to spread their hours over five days or work a four-day ‘compressed’ week.

It followed a successful trial across 100 M&S stores, with 75% of the retail managers who took part saying that the compressed hours had a positive impact on their family life, and 73% said it had a positive effect on time for themselves.

Last year, both Sainsbury’s and Asda jumped on the bandwagon, looking to offer flexible options to provide staff with a better work/life balance.

According to The Times, Sainsbury’s started offering its staff the option of working a four-day week in February 2023.

Workers based at its head offices in Holborn, Coventry and Milton Keynes as well as its warehouses, and store managers in its 1,400 UK stores were given the option to work their 37.5-hour contracts across a seven-day week, which meant some head-office workers could work on a Saturday and take a day off in the week, or could work longer weekday hours.

Asda first began trialling a four-day working week in September 2023.

The pilot saw staff in 20 Asda stores working a 44-hour week over four days rather than five for the same pay. It also ran nine-day fortnight trials.

However, the trial ended earlier this month after staff claimed that longer shifts from condensed hours were “physically demanding”.

Some parents also said that the change created “difficulties with childcare and school drop offs and pick-ups” due to the earlier start and later finish times.

Flexible working consultancy Timewise CEO Claire Campbell says that in the retail sector, it is important to gather staff feedback on what matters to them and what will enhance their wellbeing, and marry that with when the busy times are and adjust staffing levels in line with customer needs.

She adds that retail employers could build in options so that people can find the best pattern for them, and their team, and use trial periods and pilots to experiment and tweak the approach to flexible working.

Following the trial, Asda said that it will instead continue to run its flexible 39-hour week based around five shorter days – typically 7 and a half to 8 hour shifts compared to a 10-hour standard shift.

The grocer added that it has received positive feedback from colleagues for the new five shorter working days model, which will now run until the end of the year.

However, 4 Day Week Campaign director Joe Ryle says: “The Asda trial was a compressed hours trial, not a four-day week.

“The distinction is important – a true four-day week, which has been successfully implemented by hundreds of UK companies, involves a meaningful reduction in hours, usually down to below 32 hours a week.

“Compressing 44 hours into 4 days was never going to work. Asda should rethink its trial to ensure workers see a reduction in their total weekly hours.”

The Asda spokesperson added that the supermarket “will continue to test different flexible working patterns to assess how these can benefit our colleagues and our business”.

Despite Asda abandoning its trial, Ryle is convinced that more employers will sign up to the four-day week. “With a new Labour government, change is in the air and we hope to see employers embracing this change [a four-day week] by signing up to our pilot,” he says.

“The nine-five, five day working week was invented 100 years ago and is no longer fit for purpose. We are long overdue an update.”

Meanwhile, Suzanna Duke, partnerships director at WorkL –  the world’s largest live workplace happiness database, which was founded by former Waitrose managing director Mark Price – says that flexible working in the UK grocery and retail sector can be “beneficial for both businesses and employees”, however, a four-day working week can be “difficult to implement due to the customer-facing aspect of the job – which is usually seven days a week”.

While the four-day week is typically being trialled for store managers and head office staff, Duke says that there are still options for frontline retail staff.

“Flexible scheduling, such as shift swapping can really help employers in the grocery and retail industry improve the overall engagement of their employees. Implementing a system where employees can swap shifts with colleagues or choose their own shifts from a range of options can increase job satisfaction.”

She explains that this helps employees manage their work around personal responsibilities, which also leads to “better employee retention”.

Duke says that staggered shifts, which allow employees to start and finish their workdays at different times to suit their personal needs, can also help to improve employee flexibility in the sector by avoiding “peak commuting hours and better manage family or personal responsibilities”.

She adds for head office staff, a hybrid working model, where employees split their time between working in-store or in the office and working from home is “proving popular”.

“This allows employees to reduce commuting time and costs, while still maintaining a connection with the workplace and team collaboration.”

For Timewise’s Campbell, flexible working in the retail industry is “critical” and supports progression from part-time shopfloor roles into management positions.

While she applauds many retailers for experimenting with flexible working, she says that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model is “unlikely to please everyone”.

“Our preference is to identify some alternative options which provide staff with choices about how they work their time,” Campbell says.

Citing a recent trial at DIY retailer Wickes, which allowed store managers to work a four-day week or spread their hours over more days to work shorter days, Timewise found there to be no negative impact on store performance or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Staff turnover also reduced and 96.5% of store managers taking part were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their working hours at the end of the pilot – up from 66.5% pre-pilot.

Ultimately, experts and retailers alike have found that being wedded to one single approach does not work when it comes to offering flexibility, especially in an in industry as fast-paced and varied as grocery retail.

But with flexible working being trialled more often and a real want from business’ to provide a greater work/life balance, many supermarkets are getting closer to finding the solution that works best for their employees.