4-Day week trial: how it’s going

It’s been two weeks since we launched our 4-day week trial. As we wrote in our blog, we wanted to close shop on Fridays to see how it would impact our Tribe’s health and wellbeing.

We always knew this would be a trial. Making sure the 4-day week works for our clients is paramount. We wanted some leeway to experiment, seeing what works and what doesn’t, so we can continue to deliver an exceptional service while reaping the benefits of a shorter working week.

It’s early days, but the outlook is bright for the 4-day week.

Discover our experience so far and what we’re doing to make it work for you.

Speaking of being closed on Fridays, one issue taught us about how important it is to be effective communicators. We realised that we can’t just send you work at the end of Thursday without any kind of a follow-up or time in between to deal with queries.

Moving forward, we’ll always send work before the end of the day and follow up with a phone call to deal with urgent requests, as well as to keep you informed on the next steps. We want to make sure that you never feel abandoned and that all loose ends are tied up before the end of the week (or, at the very least, we have a plan in place to address them on Monday).

“For the first time in years, I painted my nails!” said one of our working mums after her first 4-day week.

It was music to our ears.

This trial is giving our people the chance to finally do things for themselves. Friday is sacred. The kids are at school. The work phone is switched off. They can wake up in the morning and do whatever they feel like doing, whether that’s having an extra few hours in bed, climbing a mountain, or volunteering.

Our Tribe is more rested. They’re ready to work on Monday, feet on the accelerators.

We can’t say for sure how this is impacting productivity. This will be clearer when we collect data towards the end of July. But it’s common sense: happier, well-rested people are more motivated and more likely to be efficient at work.

They are also less likely to take time off because of burnout — since we’ve created initiatives to improve employee wellbeing, we’ve seen absenteeism plummet in the last year.

All of this adds up to a consistently brilliant service … in theory. We’ll be listening to you throughout the trial to make sure this is a reality.

Our focus is on making sure you’re happy and supported. Over the coming months, we’ll continue to experiment with how we work, and the days that we work on, to see how we can deliver a premium service within a 4-day week.

A huge part of this is listening to your feedback. Let us know how our 4-day week trial is impacting you by calling us on 0121 828 4043 or emailing us at hello@tylergrange.co.uk. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.