Newcastle company Evolved Search has announced a permanent switch to a four-day working week following a successful six-month trial.
The city centre digital marketing agency has been trialling the scheme with its 58 staff since last August, hoping to provide employees with a better work-life balance and increase productivity to deliver better results.
Throughout the trial run, the agency regularly asked for feedback and made changes to make sure it would be the right long-term decision. It has made the change permanent after its team said they were satisfied with the new working pattern, saying it has improved their personal wellbeing, work-life balance and overall job satisfaction.
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To make the initiative work, the agency reduced weekly working hours from 35 to 32 - with no loss of pay or benefits - giving staff the option to work four eight-hour days, or the same hours over five days if that suited them better.
Staff can choose whether they take a Monday or Friday off, ensuring there is adequate cover and clients still receive the same levels of service five days per week.
Tom Etherington, managing director of Evolved Search, said: “There are already plenty of options when it comes to employee benefits and work-life balance, especially within agencies. These are all worthy offerings, whether it’s flexible hours, unlimited holidays, or time off in lieu (TOIL), but based on our experience now, freeing up an entire day every week has proven to be the most successful initiative for genuine work-life balance.
“The feedback we’ve received from the team shows how worthwhile a change it has been.”
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Sinead Hall, head of people at Evolved, said: “The move to a four-day week shows genuine trust and commitment towards each individual member of our team and couldn’t reflect our internal culture any better.
“Our trial has contributed to many positives for our team. It has allowed us to focus on the bigger picture, we have seen a reduction in admin, and there’s a stronger focus on innovation. We have created new roles to support career development and celebrated many promotions into senior positions. Our overall stress levels have reduced, our learning and development hours have increased, and our eNPs scores are the highest they have been in four years and continue to climb each month.”
Joe Ryle, campaign director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, added: “It’s great to see another 58 British workers experiencing the many benefits of moving to a four-day week with no loss of pay.
“The four-day week is a win-win scenario for both workers and employers, allowing us all to live happier and more fulfilled lives. The time has come to roll out the four-day week more widely across the economy.”
The trial has outlined some areas of improvement to keep the initiative sustainable for Evolved and the business will continue to track metrics and gather sentiment as time goes on.
Mr Etherington added: “We’ve tracked several metrics that relate to productivity and efficiency over the last two years. From the trial, we found that levels were higher compared to the same period last year, and levels haven’t dropped since the trial started.
“The crucial point is that we achieved this despite everyone’s combined hours reducing by around 15%, with some of the team previously working more than their expected contracted hours.”