Newcastle-based marketing agency Evolved Search has announced plans to introduce a four day work week for its employees as part of a six month trial.
The agency reports there will be no loss of pay or benefits for anyone taking a four day week as employees will work 32 hours per week instead of the current 35 contracted hours.
The four day work week is set to be trialled from August 2021 through to the end of January 2022 and will gather data on employee wellbeing and efficiency.
Tom Etherington, Operations Director at Evolved Search, said: “Through continued growth and bringing in the right people and clients to work with, we’ve found that we’re able to offer more flexibility to employees and it’s exciting to be adopting this approach.
“We’ve been working from home since March 2020 and our team now have a better work-life balance and are able to get on and do their best work, which in turn has had a positive impact on client results and overall efficiency.
“We know we’ll need to adapt as it’s a significant change for a 50+ person business, but the last 18 months, in particular, have shown that we’re more than capable of this.”
Sinead Hall, Head of People at Evolved Search, added: “The pandemic has highlighted what many of us in HR already knew – people work in different ways and the employer’s role is to allow them the freedom and flexibility to do their best work.
“As we prepare to return to more normality and update our policies to allow all employees to work between home and our office, it seemed like the best time to roll this initiative out. With a shortening of the working week and enabling our people to design a way of working that compliments their personal life, we hope to improve employee satisfaction, maintain our high levels of talent retention, and attract new people from a wider range of backgrounds.”
