Piloting a Four-Day Work Week
work, WOrk, Work, WOrk, Work!
By Courtney W. Robertson, Director of Operations
Joke Turned Idea
In the back-and-forth conversation about returning to the office, we casually discussed reducing the work week. But one September day, a leadership team member joked that we should only work four days a week, to which Mark—our CEO—replied, “I’m down for it. Pull together the research on it.” Let’s just say it didn’t take long to turn that research around.
Seeding Success (S2) seeks to be innovative and leverages continuous improvement, design thinking, and evidence-based practices in its work, so it was a no-brainer to think outside the box and trial a four-day work week. In light of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the shifts it forced us all to make in our day-to-day lives, S2 knew a few things: employee well-being was more important than ever, creating work-life balance had to be more than just lip service, and we could never return to business as usual.
Our initial attempt at striking a better balance between work and life was to offer monthly mental health days, which began in June 2020. However, as the pandemic persisted and team members began experiencing burnout for a number of reasons, we knew we had to do more. And not just more, but more differently. Cue the reduced work schedule, aka four-day work week!
Research & Development
Over the course of a month, select members of the leadership team (Lisa Williams, Director of Communications; Courtney W. Robertson, Director of Operations; and Surayyah Hasan, Director of Performance Analytics) and CEO Mark Sturgis pulled together a plan for testing what this reduced work schedule would look like, first aligning on why the organization should shift to a reduced work schedule and what outcomes we were hoping to reach, considering the following:
The number of days and hours per day staff would work
Which day or combination of days would be taken off
How to handle internal and external communication about the change
How they would support teams, individual roles, and partners to navigate this change prior to its implementation
Success metrics
All team members were consulted throughout the process, providing feedback and thoughts on its overall development. The final format was a Monday through Thursday, eight-hour work day schedule. Holidays falling on Fridays would be observed on preceding Thursdays, and staff would return to the office as the rule with virtual remote work as an exception.
At a high level, the metrics that were tracked before, during, and at the end of the pilot period were workplace happiness, stress levels, and productivity (individually and as a team). Once the pilot wrapped, S2 surveyed our partners to determine their awareness of the pilot, any impact of the pilot on the quality of S2’s services and supports, and access to and responsiveness of our team. The plan was in place by November 2020 and was presented to the Board of Directors, who overwhelmingly supported the idea and gave us the go-ahead.
Pilot Implementation
Due to the timing of the agreement, we decided to test the pilot in Q2 (April 4th - June 30th) of the new year, which would give the organization time to get things in order, roll it out to staff, and allow staff time to make the appropriate adjustments. Once January began, the pilot was fully rolled out to the team, and the time between then and April 1st was used for the following:
Communicating the change to partners - This occurred through a formal email from the CEO, a blurb in the monthly newsletter, and communications by staff to the partners and individuals they regularly worked with.
Adjusting schedules and workflows - Individual roles and teams were encouraged to make the adjustments necessary to fully engage in the pilot without causing disruption to workflow and quality. Reference the list of questions attached below that the leadership team, departments/teams, and individual roles consider when preparing schedules.
Developing surveys and gathering staff baseline - The Director of Communications and Director of Operations worked to develop survey instruments and gather baseline information from staff on measures such as current work-life balance, happiness at work, the ability to achieve goals, productivity, and perceived benefits and challenges of a reduced work schedule. The Director of Performance Analytics supported the overall analysis.
Results
Staff
Overall, staff remained excited about the pilot throughout its implementation despite the anticipated and actualized challenges we experienced. Work-life balance, happiness at work, ability to achieve goals, and personal productivity all saw positive increases over the course of the pilot. The level of participation in the four-day work week, overall stress level, and team productivity all remained steady throughout the pilot.
“One team member even noted cost savings on childcare, as they were able to have their children at home with them instead of at daycare on Fridays.”
Challenges identified in all three staff surveys include being required to work additional hours or on Fridays, or just generally not having enough time to do work due to the number of meetings remaining relatively the same. Benefits identified in all three surveys include more time for activities unrelated to work, such as rest (super important), running errands, spending time with family, personal tasks and appointments, and travel. One team member even noted cost savings on childcare, as they were able to have their children at home with them instead of at daycare on Fridays.
By the end of the pilot, team members also shifted their view of the reduced work schedule, citing that they now view Fridays more flexibly: a chance to be 100% off work or to prioritize other meetings and tasks they may not have time for during the more compact Monday through Thursday period. As expected, not everyone was able to take full advantage of the reduced work schedule. Many leadership team members, mostly in the C-Suite, noted that they rarely have an opportunity to take Friday off but with the majority of staff doing so, leadership gained time to catch up on administrative tasks and even connect to do strategic planning work.
Partners
According to surveys, a majority (60%) of our partners were aware of the pilot and more than 84% answered “No disruption” or “Not aware/not applicable” to the following areas: overall ability to engage in partnership, quality of services/support, overall communication with staff, responsiveness of staff, and general access to S2 staff. This feedback from our partners demonstrates overwhelming support for the four-day work week, and some even expressed interest in getting support with piloting their own altered schedule and/or engaging in a coordinated effort to implement similar pilots at their own organizations.
Lessons Learned
Rightsize organization-wide operations to ensure proportion of meetings, etc. remain the same or decrease.
Cut or reduce meetings for both teams and individuals.
Standardize the use of messaging for continuous communication and norming of the reduced work schedule (i.e. use of out of office messaging and embedding messaging in email signatures).
Next Steps
Due to the overwhelming success of the pilot and support from staff, partners, and the Board of Directors, S2 will now move into a full year of implementation of the four-day work week for FY23 and will continue monitoring key metrics, including trends in PTO requests, over the next year. We were unable to assess this particular data for the pilot since the organization switched HR platforms in July 2021 and did not have access to PTO data for any point prior as a result.
You may find details on the format/structure, surveys (staff and partner), and results attached below. For additional inquiries about the pilot, please contact the Director of Operations, Courtney W. Robertson, at courtney@seeding-success.org. Thank you!