It’s three years since we moved to a 4 day working week.
Some of the team work Monday to Thursday and others Tuesday to Friday to ensure there is no drop off in client service.
You may know of other agencies that operate a 4 day week so who cares I hear you say.
Well I believe we’re different, I’ve tried hard to find an agency that mirrors what we do but as yet I haven’t found one.
Because we not only operate a 4 day week but we pay everyone for 5…genuinely 5 full working days and…and here’s the key difference to how we operate, we have no extended hours.
Each working day is 9:00am to 5:30pm (with an hour for lunch). We don’t try to cram 5 days into 4.
In simple terms three years ago we cut our work force by 20%, overnight.
You must be mad. It’ll never work. You’re a people industry. Financial suicide. They said.
Even some of the team were apprehensive. Someone even questioned what he would do on a 3 day weekend EVERY week.
Well, I’m delighted to say 3 years on it has proved to be a remarkable success. So much so we forget it’s not the norm.
I talked a lot last year about the non-financial benefits but on our 3rd anniversary I’m delighted to say our bottom line has improved 400% YOY. There are many contributing factors; greater focus, improved efficiencies, a more single minded approach or a robust new business drive but that’s not the point.
The point is we’ve achieved this with a 20% smaller team.
We took a risk, no doubt.
But it’s enabled us to galvanise the team, focus on what’s important to everyone, enjoy the time in the office with friends, enjoy what we do and appreciate time away from work more than ever.
In all honesty we all probably take 4 for 5 granted, that’s human nature but when I sat and thought about it a few evenings ago I realised we’ve created something unique, something special, a real team that I’m incredibly proud to be part of.
