The half-way point has been reached in a ground-breaking pilot taking place across the UK.
Around 70 companies up and down the country are participating in a four-day week pilot, which is due to conclude in December.
One of the firms taking part is environmental consultancy Tyler Grange, whose 80-strong nationwide team are not working on Fridays, with no loss of income.
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Tyler Grange has offices located in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter and Cirencester.
To mark getting half way through the pilot, managing director Simon Ursell has revealed the seven key things he has learnt so far.
Preparation is vital
"I can’t stress enough how important it is to prepare for the switch from five working days to four. We started talking about working a four-day week more than four years ago and, during that time, we did a great deal of work – and made significant investment in technology and systems – to ensure we were ready long before we went live.
"We had originally planned to start our own trial next January, but when we heard about the UK pilot, we brought forward its introduction by six months so that we can benefit from the additional support available.
"In preparation, we also spoke to companies who are already working a four-day week and took onboard their advice and learnings. And, for six months or so before starting the trial, we made our Fridays less busy - to streamline the transition and best prepare us, and our clients.
"It’s important to remember that the four-day week isn’t a compressed work schedule but rather reduced hours with the objective of being more productive, happier, and more focussed. To enjoy a better work-life balance and to have more time to spend doing what we love. This just can’t be switched on overnight."
Talk to your clients and customers
"For a number of months before the trial began, we also talked to our clients about how we were preparing and what it would mean for them.
"We asked for their feedback and reservations and their response was overwhelmingly positive. The most common concern, of course, was 'what if we need you on a Friday?' but the vast majority congratulated us for showing such innovation, yet again, and are keen to be kept up to date on how it’s going.
"Our ultimate aim is that we talk to our clients enough from Monday to Thursday – and deliver what they need - so that they don’t need to contact us on Fridays. And that’s where we are now.
"We set up an emergency phone line that’s manned by one of our six directors each Friday. And, in the three months of the trial, we only received two calls in the first couple weeks. We also added a page to our website, advising clients on what to do if they have a project emergency.
"On both occasions, colleagues did have to log-on to catch up on what we’d missed, and we reacted rapidly to ensure that our clients wouldn’t have to call us on a Friday again. It was a learning for us all to take on board.
"We had to make sure that we were all 100% on top of our projects at all times. These two calls focussed our minds, made us interrogate our processes further and I’m delighted to say that our operation became even more efficient and productive – and our staff and clients more satisfied - as a result."
A four-day working week isn’t for everyone
"When considering – and preparing to begin – a four day-week, it’s essential to engage with your team.
"In the UK, 10 million people say they would like to work fewer hours, with three million willing to accept less pay in return.
"But it’s also important to realise that working a four-day week isn’t for everyone. A couple of our Tribe didn’t take to our new ways of working – they wanted to work five days a week and weren’t keen to adapt how they work - and we supported them to find roles elsewhere.
"There were also a number of our colleagues who were openly very anxious about the change at first. Some of our most high performing team members couldn’t understand how it would be possible to fit five days’ work into four when they already work so very hard.
"But once the pilot began, and we became more accustomed to our news systems and way of working – which removed lots of lengthy admin and unnecessary meetings and reporting from our day - they soon got their heads around it.
"We have processes in place to make our admin better than ever, and our Tribe and clients are reaping the rewards. We want our ecologists to be ecologists, not data managers, and we hope that this will attract more like-minded ecologists to the consultancy – through a culture that we believe will thrive in a four-day work week."
Take different job roles and departments into consideration
"Due to how some of our team works – and the fact that summer was the busiest time for many of us – we believed it to be unfair to add to the workload and pressure by introducing all of the new systems at the same time.
"Some of our work is very seasonal so, for those teams that were very busy during summertime, we’ve delayed the implementation of some new processes until the autumn.
"You need to give people time to learn how to work differently – and it may not be the same for everyone."
If you’re looking to sell your business, a four-day week might not be for you
"We used to receive a number of approaches by companies looking to buy us. But interestingly, since trialling the four-day week, they’ve stopped.
"Giving employees the same pay for less hours could feel like you’re taking the scenic route to giving a company-wide pay rise. So, for any potential owners who are sceptical that cutting hours could increase productivity, working a four-day week probably feels like too great a gamble to get locked into.
"So, if you’re busy running a company with the intention to sell, the four-day working week may not be for you."
Only have one company-wide day off
"In some companies, the potential impact of the four-day week is being mitigated by covering all days but with reduced colleagues. We wouldn’t recommend this, despite it perhaps seeming to be an easier option at first.
"In reality, it means that your team is at full capacity for less of the time – potentially working together, collaboratively, for just 60% of the working week. And those companies operating this way often report confusion on handover days due to staff taking different days off. It’s far harder to manage than a single day reduction for everyone. It’s also more difficult for clients.
"What is also good about our entire Tribe all having Fridays off is that we spend more time together sharing pastimes we enjoy - including brewing our own Tyler Grange beer.
"Yes, some sociability has been lost from our office network as we are more focussed – we now don’t have time to chat for hours in the kitchen or across the desk – but lots of us are getting together on Fridays to keep in touch and do the things we love."
It can sometimes be more intense and tiring
"Most jobs are intense from time to time, and we know that working four days rather than five can exacerbate this on occasions.
"But the adoption of our Alertness App – that we developed in the run-up to our introduction of the pilot – is doing a great job at monitoring employee wellbeing and happiness and predicting our colleagues’ risks from fatigue by collating daily user inputs. This means we can get a real handle on any tiredness early and can react straight away."
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