Comit

Dec 8, 2022

Data shows four-day week is a winner The metrics look good but management may not be ready for another change in working style, says Billy MacInnes 8 December 2022 “The key commodity we can give back to our people is time.” Those are the words Ken Tormey, chief revenue officer at Typetec, used on the Radio 4 Today programme when he discussed the company’s shift to a four day working week earlier this month. It’s a very succinct way of summing up what the four day week means for so many people – and by giving back time, you give people so much more. Time spent outside the office is time used doing other things, time that reshapes the work/life balance people have become accustomed to in a five day working week. Last week, I wrote about the results of a four-day week pilot, which involved 12 Irish companies. Of the seven companies that provided data on revenue, six reported monthly revenue growth. Nine of the 12 companies said they had committed to continuing with the four-day-week schedule. Dr Orla Kelly of DCU noted the “significant improvements across a wide range of well-being metrics, including positive affect, work-family and work-life balance, and several domains of life satisfaction. Conversely, stress, burnout, fatigue, and work-family conflict significantly declined. Levels of sleep deprivation have also fallen dramatically”. Typetec is one of the companies that took part in the pilot. Tormey says it was important from the start to set out guidelines for people to work with but the company did not impose a set of draconian rules and regulations, relying on the collective responsibility staff would feel to make it work. Typetec took the decision to reduce the working week but maintain salaries at their same levels. Tormey says the effect on wages was the first question staff asked when the change was mooted. One of the biggest challenges has been measuring productivity but Typetec has been able to gauge this through SLAs and CSATs. It deliberately kept the measures to a small number of metrics, as well as revenue targets. Offering a four day working week has been very positive for the company’s recruitment. The level and type of candidates has improved, including some people that probably wouldn’t have considered Typetec before. Tormey believes the four-day week can help to level the field against larger companies. He adds that the company is committed to the four-day working week but stresses it needs regular check ins, comparing it to planning, designing and implementing a new garden. It might look great but you have to keep working on it. “You can’t just sit on your laurels,” he warns. For the time being, there is likely to be some variance how companies implement the four day working week. “Even in the managed service world, if you took five managed service companies and they all looked at the four day working week, they’d probably all be different. I don’t think there’s a one-size fits all,” Tormey argues. That’s definitely true of tech specialist PR and communications agency Comit which introduced a four day working week in May this year. Comit took the decision independently of the pilot scheme. Unlike Typetec, which has a shift pattern for the four day week to provide cover on the desk all week around, Comit went to a set four day working week for the entire company from Monday to Thursday. Like Typetec, there was no change in staff salaries. There is a rota to provide cover in the office on a Friday but a member of staff is only required to do that once every eight weeks. Managing director Allan Chapman says the shift has been successful in terms of productivity, the overall impact on the business and for the staff. People are more focused when they come into work and that focus “brings a much higher level of productivity”. Job satisfaction and work/life balance satisfaction are up and the ability to reach client deadlines is as good as it was before the change. As for staff recruitment, Chapman reveals Comit had three times the number of first time interviews for the last role the company advertised and the quality of candidates was strong. “Our business is a people business and the ability to provide a great service to our customers is heavily dependent on the people we have. If we can bring in better people and keep our best people, that’s the ultimate win-win,” he says. Chapman makes the point that the move to a four day working week has probably done more for the company’s inclusiveness than any other measure because it makes work more accessible to a wider range of people who can better fit the work around their lives. He describes the shift to four day working as “life-changing for people”. If time is life, then if you change people’s time, you can change their lives. The latest from TechCentral.ie direct to your inbox daily Leave this field empty if you're human: Support our advertisers