At Success Local, along with our staff, our clients have always been at the heart of our business. Without your support and trust, we wouldn’t be where we are today. That’s why we are constantly seeking ways to enhance our working practices, not only to benefit our team but ultimately to provide you with even better services and results.
Success Local is delighted to announce that we’ll be trialling a 4-day working week.
We’ve been working with the team at Sussex University on the implementation of our 4-day week, including gathering benchmarking data and updating our practices to best suit our new working structure.
Starting Monday 10th July, we’ll be running a 12-week trial that aims to test the theory that a 4-day week will improve staff wellbeing, productivity will remain the same and quality of delivery will go up, which will benefit our clients.
The Research Behind It
The concept of a 4-day working week has been a hot topic for the past few years and there are more and more studies being undertaken to understand the impact of the shift. Earlier this year the results from the biggest ever four-day week trial were released, reporting an overall success. This joins other trials by companies such as Microsoft.
Our own trial won’t be blindly undertaken as we’ll be gathering meaningful data throughout the 12-week period to determine whether it has worked well for Success Local and our clients.
How Success Local’s Trial Will Work
For two weeks between 26th June – 7th July, our team have all been taking part in a benchmarking period. This benchmarking fortnight consisted of sleep analysis, well-being questionnaires, time use diaries and measurement of our regular productivity and client success metrics. Some of our team will also be visiting the Sussex University campus in person to take part in MRI scans, blood tests and stress perception tests as part of the study.
Starting from 10th July the team will all be working a 4-day week with no change to their pay or the hours they work on the 4 days. The office will be closed on a Wednesday, with the whole team working in two 2-day sprints.
Key points
- The trial involves the full team.
- The team will have the same start and end time as they do now, with a reduction of a day. This means a reduction from 38.75 hours per week to 31.
- Pay will remain the same.
- All team members will enjoy a mid-week break on a Wednesday to recharge.
- During the trial, we will be reverting back to being 100% office-based. This should help us to establish the best habits to be able to deliver on a 4-day working week and to maintain culture.
- The trial is being supported by data that is collected by Sussex University as part of their own research.
If the trial is successful, we plan to extend the trial for a further 12 weeks whilst re-introducing elements of hybrid work. This is dependent on us maintaining productivity and client experience, delivering quality campaigns and positively impacting our team’s well-being.
What About Service Levels?
Our team are committed to delivering excellent campaigns for our clients, whilst making improvements behind the scenes that allow us to be more effective and productive. This means that you shouldn’t notice any changes in the delivery of your campaign, other than having a more creative and expansive approach.
As the office will be closed on Wednesday, our team will not be contactable. We understand that this may present some concerns about being able to speak to your point of contact. That’s why we’re implementing a calendar booking system that will allow you to book time in our team’s diary that suits you and your availability. This should ensure that you’re still able to speak to your point of contact at a time that’s convenient for you.
The reason we’re entering a trial period is to make sure that we can still deliver exceptional campaigns and customer service, whilst giving our team a better work-life balance. The results of the trial will be monitored throughout and we’ll be quick to adjust if that’s required.
Positive Impacts
With 20% more time to pursue personal interests, spend time with family and relax, our team should be more enthusiastic, creative and able to provide even better levels of service and campaigns.
We’re looking forward to the next 12 weeks and seeing the positive effect that we’re sure a 4-day working week will have.
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