Suffolk firm says four-day work week model helped improve staff morale and efficiency
It comes as around 30 UK companies begin trialling the four-day work week to consider the feasibility of this mode of working
As 30 companies across the UK begin trialling the 4-day work week, we caught up with an executive from a Suffolk firm that introduced the model seven years ago.
Rachel Garrett is the Managing Director of CMG Technologies, a firm that specialises in Metal Injection Moulding and 3D Metal Printing.
She says told us: "We introduced the four day work week in 2015 . We said to all our staff, 'This is something we're considering. We are looking at reducing everybody's full time hours from 40 to 35 but retaining salaries'.
"That was the important message, making sure that nobody was impacted financially.
"So instead of working seven and a half hour days, it was changed to 9 hour days. That was seven years ago and we haven't actually looked back since."
Earlier this week, it was announced that as part of a pilot scheme, 30 UK companies will trial the four-day work week to study the impact of a longer weekend on productivity and staff wellbeing.
The study is being carried out by the 4 Day Week Campaign, think tank Autonomy and Boston College, alongside the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Employers will initiate a 100-80-100 model, to find out where staff get full pay for working 80 percent of the hours at 100 percent productivity.
Ms Garrett talks us through some of the benefits they have seen after adopting the four-day work week: "We're seeing that across the board, we don't have any issues with sickness. People aren't reaching burnout so they're not having having to call in sick.
"We have very high staff retention. Our staff Members will talk to their friends and family about this way of working, who are often saying, 'Oh well, if there's any jobs you know, let me know. I'd love to work in an environment like that.' So if we have a job vacancy, we're usually able to fill it up quite well."
She believes the reason for this is due to the fact that staff have one additional day to look after 'life admin' tasks like shopping, managing finances or cleaning. This leaves the weekend free for rest and rejuvenation.
"If you're stressed out or reaching burning out and you don't have time to recuperate over the weekend or or do the things you need to do with your family or within your home, that then carries forward into into your work life", she adds.
Her company also found that the reduced working hours had no impact on their productivity, and in fact increased efficiency. "People certainly are working smarter now because you haven't got those extra hours to think, 'If I don't get it done today, I can get it done tomorrow'. You don't have that option. So people definitely a lot more focused at when they are carrying out their tasks.
"And because staff are coming back to work a bit more refreshed, they've got that energy to be able to keep focus when they are here."
They also found that their profits increased as they had to optimise work processes to make the best use of the reduced working hours. And because staff were working more diligently, scrapping and reworking costs were down as well.
She says, "I totally get that it's not going to work for everyone. There's definitely sectors where it's impossible or difficult to make it happen. But from our experience, within our industry, it's been a very positive move for us."
Ms Garett goes on to add that four-day work week model will only work, however, if employers are willing to cut down the number of working hours, while maintaining pay.
"You can't try and think, 'Right, these are the hours we do in five days. I still want our staff to do those hours, but I'm going to cram them into four days'. I don't believe that this necessarily has the same positive benefits.
"So I think if people are going to make that move, there needs to be that commitment to actually reduce hours and retain salaries."
What would her elevator pitch for the four-day work week be?
"If you can improve your productivity and creativity through staff well being and staff morale, then you're going to improve your recruitment, your retention. You can have less burnout and a more balanced, sustainable life for everybody."