Update: Reduced hours 4-day week – has it been a success?
Back in June we introduced a trial four-day work week with reduced hours. Instead of working 37.5 hours a week our team went down to a 32-hour 4 day week on the same salary. On the most part it has worked and has been a success. We asked our team for feedback on the trial to see how they felt it went.
The results of our survey are below:
1) Did you participate in the four-day work week trial?
100% of staff said yes
2) How did you feel about the idea of a reduced hours four-day work week before the trial?
80% - Very Positive
10% Positive
10% Neutral
3) How did you find the experience of a four-day week instead of the traditional five-day week?
60% Excellent
40% Very Good
4) How well were you able to manage your workload during the trial period?
20% Extremely well
80% Somewhat well
5) Where you able to maintain a healthy work-life balance during the trial?
70% Always
20% Very Often
10% Sometimes
6) Do you feel that productivity increased, decreased or remained the same during the four-day week trial?
100% Increased
7) Do you feel that collaboration with other team members increased, decreased or remained the same during the trial?
10% Increased
10% Decreased
80% Stayed the same
8) Did the four-day work week trial positively influence your overall well-being and work-related stress levels?
70% Yes significantly
30% Yes to some degree
9) Did you have more time for personal activities, hobbies, family and relaxation during the trial?
80% Yes a lot more
20% Yes somewhat more
10) Based on your experience of the trial would you like it to continue?
100% Yes
This feedback is really positive and it’s great that our team are finding a better work life balance. It may be widley considered that of course everyone is going to look at this in a positive light and that negative feedback would be minimal. This would not be the case if some team members are not being productive and only doing the minimum. This would have a negative impact on the team as a whole as everyone else would need to work harder to pick up the slack. It would ultimately lead to frustration and tension in the team if some are doing 32 hours and others are having to work 42 hours due to others not pulling their weight. Thankfully this has not been the case and everyone is working together on this.
As much as the feedback is positive there is a few issues we have noticed with the reduced hours four-day work week.
Firstly, only around 80% of the team are working to the 32 hours. It’s not that the rest are not being as productive it’s just with workload and deadlines it’s sometimes hard to get work done in 32 hours. The average seems to be around 35 so there is still a good reduction in hours and a focus on productivity. Our workload has not changed so it’s up to each individual and also collaboratively as a team to work out how we can be more productive and focused. We will share our teams’ thoughts on this in the coming weeks.
Secondly, most of our clients still work Fridays. Not a huge problem as Fridays are typically a quieter day for meetings and calls. Some meetings can’t be rearranged and that’s ok. The majority of the team don’t mind attending a meeting on a Friday if it can’t be rescheduled. Any urgent emails are being answered and most are taking calls, but Fridays are typically quieter anyway.
Thirdly, deadlines still need to be met. It’s not that we are just cutting our hours and not being any more productive. It’s up the team to make sure they are still as productive in 32 hours as they are in 37.5 hours or the reduced hours week just won’t work. I think as a whole this is working and the team are still working hard to make sure deadlines are met. We need to work as a team to balance workload, meet deadlines and everyone needs to pull their weight.
The positives far outweigh the negatives especially when it comes to morale and work life balance. Some positive comments from the team:
“Being able to spend more time with family”
“I am more organised for the week and more focused”
“Being able to complete all my work but have more free time for family and friends”
“Works really well and hope it continues”
“I have better time management”
“I now use lots of shortcuts in our software which I was previously unaware of”
From a business perspective we have not seen a drop in productivity or invoicing. We have not received any negative feedback (yet) from clients. We have decided that the four-day week is here to stay but we need to keep working together to find new ways of becoming more productive while maintaining a quality service to our valued clients. There are always ways of improving processes and becoming more efficient as a business. We will continue to strive to think outside the box and develop new ways of improving our service while keeping our team motivated and happy at work.