The four-day week: still rare in media but trials are underway
Hybrid or flexible working is rising up the agenda again as many return to the office this week after long stints working remotely, while many companies are considering new ways of working.
A four-day working week trial is set to take place from June with 30 UK companies joining a select few in the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
But could the four-day week become the norm in the media industry? It is not a new idea, but could come back into focus now. Media owners and media agencies have struggled to hire as the industry recovers from the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the advertising market sharply declined in 2020.
Home-working created a ‘realignment’
On the subject of a reduced working week, Natalie Napier from the Grace Blue Partnership told Mediatel News: “Some other countries have trialled it previously and they have already had real success with the idea being that people are more productive when they feel like they’ve got a bit more balance in their lives so actually get 100% productivity even if people are only working 80% of the time.”
Napier said she was not sure anyone would want to return to “the old way” of working Monday- Friday 9am- 6pm after “the realignment” on how we view work during the pandemic.
With the advertising and media industry in mind, she said many people being placed in senior leadership roles by Grace Blue across agency and consumer brands wanted a reduced working week, and this has been supported by clients and been “really successful”.
However, it seems most agencies and media owners do not have an official four-day week plan on their radar with most focussed on getting employees back into the office rather than decreasing their hours.
Most told Mediatel News they were “not in a position to comment” on the viability for their business but some would look at the outcome of the trial closely.
A nine-day fortnight?
Independent media agency the7stars has been trialling a nine-day fortnight for the last year and is considering rolling it out on a wider scale.
Jenny Biggam, founder of the7stars, told Mediatel News that one of its teams of around 30 people had been trialling the scheme where staff choose a day off every two weeks.
This does not count towards their paid annual leave allowance and had positive feedback with people using the extra day off to “do healthy stuff” like the gym, outdoor activities and seeing friends and family.
The team made sure 90% of staff were in every day in that second week to make sure workloads were covered.
Biggam commented: “Personally, I love the notion of the four-day working week and I really look forward to hearing the results of the trial.
“I have been trained in the “smarter not harder” way of working and one of the concepts is the theory (which we all know is true) that everyone works most efficiently on that last day before a holiday. On that day, a combination of a genuine deadline and something to look forward to the next day, drives our motivation to get stuff done.”
She said that given the success of the trial of the nine-day fortnight, the7stars are considering rolling this out “on a broader scale”.
Biggam added: “As we move forward from lockdown to hybrid, the most important thing we can do is keep testing new ways of working and keep learning.”
‘Two-way flexible working’
Meanwhile, Pippa Glucklich, CEO at Electric Glue told Mediatel News that “mental health, job satisfaction and profitability improve when employees are empowered to work flexibly.”
Glucklich is an active member and past president of WACL, the gender equality group for advertising and communications, which put out a FlexibleFirst campaign last year to get companies to commit to providing “two-way flexible working”, which benefit both the business and employee, to help close the gender pay gap and deliver gender equality.
She added: “We’ve found that nurturing culture and creativity can be easier when people are together all week but we know that as long as you communicate effectively and stay agile, multiple types of flexible working can work. ”
Electric Glue’s team currently includes staff on four-day and three-day contracts and “the thing that matters is attracting the best minds.”
Larissa Vince, CEO, TBWA\London echoed this as she said management teams need to set an example on supporting individual flexible working needs that focus on outcome and quality, rather than presence.
She added: “A culture of presenteeism is the opposite of an environment in which the best ideas thrive. As well as talking about that belief, it’s important for the management team to lead from the front. I always love it when men in senior positions make a point of saying they are leaving to pick up their children, for example.”
TBWA\London encourages work from the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays to create “a sense of togetherness” with core hours from 10am -4pm to give people time to drop off children if they need to and provides opportunities for some people to work from other countries as well.