Norfolk tech company says four-day week can boost productivity

Bedrock Learning, based in Norwich, is one of three firms locally getting involved in the UK trial

Author: Tom ClabonPublished 13th Jun 2022

A Norfolk educational tech company has just trialled it's first 4-day week and says the scheme has the potential to drive up businesses efficiency and productivity- if implemented properly.

Bedrock Learning, based in Norwich is one of three firms known to be getting involved in the UK trial, locally - and told us it's implementation was two months in the making.

"It was originally all about giving people a day off"

Aaron Leary is their CEO and told us there's one think that will ultimately determine the plans future: "It was originally all about giving people a day off, but actually that's become the most irrelevant part now.

"The real effort has been about what we do as individuals and an organisation to be so productive that we can genuinely afford to lose 20 per cent of our week.

"It's all about pitching to the team that we would like to do this for you, but for it to be a success we need to dig deep, look inside ourselves and be honest about how we actually operate and whether we are truly productive."

"Most of the time at our desks are protected for the delivery of our role"

He told us how the scheme work best and opened his eyes to a few things: "I now realise that people, organisations, business- it's incredibly inefficient.

"What people need to do is not stress so much about the fifth day being lost and what that might do for the businesses function and success, but actually- just have a deep enquiry about what people are actually doing and how productive they are.

"We have basically switched each working day from a 'free for all' of do your job and do everything in -between, to five hours of the working-day where you are not allowed to be disturbed.

"We have set times where we can meet and speak, as well as check our emails. Pretty much most of the time at our desks are protected for the delivery of our role."

Companies all over the UK are currently taking part in the four-day week trial.

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