Gender Equality
Is gender equality slipping down the agenda?
Is the campaign for greater gender equality at work drifting a little and is now the time...read more
‘Productivity increases as a result of nine-day fortnight’
HR firm CharlieHR says its nine-day fortnight trial has resulted in an 11% productivity boost.
An HR firm which has trialled a nine-day fortnight says it has seen a 24% fall in work-related stress and an 11% increase in productivity.
Rather than trialing a four-day work week, CharlieHR has been trialling a nine-day fortnight with its team – alternating between a five and four-day work week – to test if adjusting traditional working patterns can boost wellbeing and productivity. In addition to productivity gains and falls in work-related stress, the results of the trial, which ran between October 2021 and June 2022 show a 14% increase in team members’ ability to disengage from work. Meanwhile, 40% of candidates hired in recent months have included the nine-day fortnight as one of their top three reasons for wanting to join the company.
The trial will now become a permanent policy. Originally Charlie HR had also been thinking of moving to a four-day week, but following lots of internal discussions they decided that this would not work for the whole organisation, particularly more client-facing roles and the product teams. The nine-day fortnight was felt to be less disruptive and more sustainable as teams could put a rota in place to ensure clients had a contact point all week.
Combined with its Mental Health sick days and Nomad Working policy, the company hopes the nine-day fortnight will help it to achieve its ambition of being at the forefront of progressive approaches which will ‘Make Work Better.’
It says the biggest surprise of the trial was the productivity gain.
Ben Gateley, CEO and Co-founder of CharlieHR said: “What wasn’t clear when we started the trial was whether increased personal energy and bounce would make up for lost time and mean we don’t lose by way of productivity. It has seemed not, and productivity is up by 11%. Having working hours reduced does seem to improve team members’ focus – we just need to keep a watchful eye that this remains to be the case. An inspiration for positive focus and not a stressful pressure to get the same amount of work done in a shorter period of time.”
Related
Gender Equality
Transferring to tech
Alice Howis from East London was doing a creative course when she decided to do a bootcamp...read more
