The four-day work week is a draw card for agency workers looking for greener pastures, but committing to a trial is more valuable than a permanent selection.
As employees flock to companies that prioritise a healthy work-life balance, many agencies and media companies have trialled the four-day work week.
However, not every trial is a success story.
According to 4 Day Week Global, a global not-for-profit community invested in the transition to reduced working hours, a four-day week is a reduction in the work week from a standard 40-hours to 32-hours for the same pay and benefits.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of businesses found it easier to attract and retain talent within a four-day week.
And 78% of employees are happier and less stressed.
Almost all companies that move to a four-day week do three big things: radically shorten and reform meetings; use technology more thoughtfully and mindfully, and; redesign the workday to build in distinct periods for focused work, meetings, and social time.
Studies show that the average worker loses two to three hours each day to useless meetings, poor technology implementations, and just plain old distractions. So the four-day week is actually already here. 4 Day Week Global says: “We just can’t see it because it’s buried underneath these old, outdated practices.”
Workers most commonly vote to take Wednesdays off instead of Fridays, finding that a midweek break was the most beneficial for mental health.
Lisa Lie, former head of people and culture at Half Dome, told AdNews the agency trialled a four-day schedule but it didn't work. However, it did help them to discover a host of other benefits.
“We trialled a four-day condensed week in 2021, amongst a host of other flexibility options. Ultimately, any kind of practical flexibility is a winner.
“Success for us came in breaking existing workflows to support greater flexibility and shifting mindsets to become more focused on outputs over hours.
“We went into this experiment with a shared contribution to the success metrics and it had a massive impact on wellbeing, team orientation and happiness at work. It was a huge success and contributed to the amount of trust we have in our culture today. It also allowed us to experiment further with flexibility and autonomy at work by trialling Unlimited Leave this year.
“What did we learn? Flexibility is not one size fits all. The very nature of the word is that it should be flexible, so that’s what we run with.
“We had assumptions that everyone would want to do a four-day condensed week, but in fact, many just preferred a standard five-day week with greater flexibility on time and location throughout the day.
“To set yourself up for success, anyone considering implementing greater flexibility should see it as a shared experiment that the full team contributes to.
“It’s not just about saying, ‘here’s what we’re going to do’.
“You need to have solid alignment on the practicalities that come with it and a plan for balancing people’s need for structure/rules with freedom and the right mindset around supporting each other to allow everyone greater flexibility at work.”
While the model didn’t work for Half Dome, Equality Media + Marketing found success.
Marilla Akkermans, managing director at Equality, had noticed for quite some time that the four-day week was a global movement picking up pace.
The more she looked into the research it was an initiative she wanted to implement in 2022.
Akkermans said: “We’re passionate that the 40-hour plus work week, chained to an office desk five days a week is outdated and not designed to be the best way of working now that we are well and truly in a knowledge era.
“Each day there is more and more evidence that says on average employees get about four hours of productive work from a knowledge based desk role.
“So if you can find an extra 15-20 minutes of efficiency each day you can technically bank that fifth day of work.
“The other piece of research that supports this is our diminishing attention span in the digital age - it’s down to eight seconds, which means we’re pretty much always distracted.
“We also know now that multi-tasking extends the length of time it takes to complete a project, so combine our diminishing attention span with the amount of distractions we get in a day, we’re losing valuable time trying to get back into focus on the things that really matter.
“Before we launched our trial of the 4DW we spent three months working together on strategies to improve our efficiency and put plans in place so we could give the trial our best shot.
“Our end goal is to find a way to work flexibly that works for us. The four-day week is a great place to start and we want to keep growing on how we can make workplaces more productive in the 21st century.
“The four-day week is working so well for us because we are a team that communicates. Decisions like these are not made without the full team’s consultation so that when we head into it, all aspects have been considered and we’re run through best and worst case scenarios.
“We’ve had success going into the four-day week because we don’t hold unrealistic expectations on the team to be performing more than their role - not twice or triple the workload than we pay them for.
“Where do we benefit as an organisation? In happier, more mentally available people who feel valued and committed to us and our clients.
“More fulfilled and valued staff will always support you with their loyalty and brilliance, and for that we can’t thank them enough.”
While other media companies have not yet had the confidence to launch a 4-day trial, they are watching the concept closely.
Melissa Fein, CEO Initiative, said: “We offer our people flexibility to work the hours that work for them and their teams. A 9-day fortnight is not something we are currently exploring but that’s not to say it may be a consideration in the future.
“Again it depends on the demands of our clients, our commitments and our ability to deliver.”
Paul Sigaloff, vice president, head of APAC at Yahoo, said: “We’re always looking out for new trends in the market and listening to our people.
“Whilst we’re currently not implementing a four day week or nine day fortnight, we’ll continue to keep our eye on the trend and our team’s evolving needs.
“Our flexibility policy will always be a work in progress. Currently, we offer a $750 work from home set-up payment, a work from abroad initiative and summer hours, which means the team finishes up at 1 pm on Fridays from December through to February.
“It’s all about giving back time to rest, relax and recharge.”
However, for those who are hesitant 4 Day Week Global asks to consider what the greater risk is: trying the four-day week and failing, or their biggest competitor trying it first and reaping the rewards?
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