We are a 4-day week employer!

On the 2^nd of September 2024, we initiated our 4-day working week scheme…

The four-day working week is still a relatively new movement being adopted by more and more companies across the southwest. Many companies across the United Kingdom and the world have adopted this way of working and seen great success.

We put a lot of thought, time and research into this decision, working closely with other companies who embraced the change and listening to feedback from our staff and clients. We are confident that the changes we are making will ensure that our clients see the same great service we provide, and our employees feel the benefit of a healthier work/life balance.

Our aim and ethos is to build trusted and professional relationships, supporting our clients to achieve their own financial objectives. To do this, we need to consider our workforce and ensure that they are supported both financially and emotionally, happy coming to work to be the best they can be for our clients.

We put a lot of focus on the health and wellbeing of our team, ensuring they are equipped and empowered to look after themselves. In the past we have supported this with a focused health and wellbeing programme, but we wanted something that was bold, really made a difference, and gave our team more flexibility to deliver what our company and clients need.

What this looks like…

Each member of the team works four days in the week with alternating days off – meaning that our workload can be distributed evenly throughout the week.

We are still operating 5 days a week and have extended our hours to 9am-5pm. – allowing us to dedicate more time to our clients in each working day.

The Impact

We considered the impact this change would make on our company, our team and our clients when trailing our new 4 day working week scheme…

• The company will be open an hour longer every day, that’s 5 hours more that a client can reach us every week. Over the year considering we only close for the Christmas period that is 255 hours more we are available to our clients.
• Our staff are able to plan a healthy work/life balance, using the extra day in the week to accomplish whatever suits them. It might be to relax, to learn something new, to exercise, to be at home with young children, or just to use the time for life admin during the working week.
• A four-day working week will help us to recruit new talent when the need arises. As a progressive, client focused, technology lead company we want to be able to recruit top local talent.

The Benefits

If you are thinking of implementing a four-day working week or would like to know more, below are the details of some of the benefits as detailed on the official 4 Day week website…

Employees

• Better work-life balance – a four-day week gives us the time to live happier and more fulfilled lives, allowing for those non-work parts of life that are often neglected such as:
• Rest – sleep and the various forms of rest we need while awake (physical, mental, social, emotional and sensory rest).
• Leisure – from spending time with family and friends, to pursuing hobbies and passion projects.
• 'Life Admin' – tasks like shopping, cleaning, managing the finances, and the many parenting duties.
• Help with the cost of living - a four-day week with no loss of pay reduces the cost of childcare, commuting, and the every day costs of working in the office environment.

Employers

• Higher performance and profits – trials and real-world examples show that employers who move to a four-day week increase productivity and reduce costs (a Henley Business School study in 2021 estimated that UK businesses would save a combined £104 billion a year if a four-day week was implemented across the entire workforce).
• Greater talent – reducing the working week enables organisations to attract and retain high quality employees who are happier and less stressed and take fewer sick days.

The Economy

• Lower unemployment – incredibly, the UK suffers simultaneously from overwork, unemployment and underemployment, so a four-day week is an intuitively simple way to rebalance the economy and address many problems.
• Increased productivity – numerous studies show that working fewer hours would boost the UK’s productivity.
• Boost to tourism – with more free leisure time, the tourism sector would benefit from people taking more short breaks in the UK.

Society

• Better mental and physical health – more time to focus on our health and wellbeing, and prevent and address any issues or illnesses.
• Gender equality – a more equal share of paid and unpaid work, including of caring roles traditionally ascribed to women.
• Strengthened communities – more time to build relationships and care for children, elderly and disabled people.

The Environment

• A more sustainable lifestyle – more free time allows us to make environmentally-positive choices, such as cycling and walking instead of driving, and cooking with fresh ingredients rather than buying energy-intensive ready meals.
• A reduced carbon footprint – research has shown that a four-day week could reduce the UK's carbon footprint by 127 million tonnes per year, which is the equivalent of taking 27 million cars off the road (effectively the entire UK private car fleet)¹.

More information about the 4 day week can be found here.

¹Chartered Institute of Environmental Health - Four-day week would dramatically reduce UK’s carbon footprint - March 2023 - click here to find out more.

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