Four > five
Let’s explore how a four-day week could transform your organisation.
What could your organisation achieve with a four-day week?
World class staff retention rates
Better efficiency and productivity
Energised, more creative workforce
Happier, healthier staff
Cultural & operational transformation
Our four-day week story
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We founded Forward Action, a progressive digital marketing agency, in 2015. We led the company for eight years before transitioning it to Employee Ownership.
Before leaving, we piloted a four-day week at Forward Action, believing it was the best way to set the company up for long-term success once we were gone.
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The first time a member of our team suggested trialling a four-day week, we said no. It sounded great, we thought, but there was surely no way we could make it work for us. After all, we were a consultancy - we sold time. With 20% less of it, how could we hope to match our current performance, let alone do better?
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As we prepared our company for the transition to new leadership, we began to realise how the four-day week could solve some critical challenges facing our business. In particular, we needed to overhaul increasingly complex and inefficient operations, hold onto our best staff in a highly competitive labour market, and make significant cultural shifts to enable the company to thrive without us.
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We spent three months preparing for the pilot. The need to adapt five days of work into four created a golden opportunity for change, which we used to make major improvements on the key challenges facing us. And when the pilot came, it was a resounding success:
We not only met but exceeded our financial targets
80% of staff reported their experience of work had improved, leading to better productivity, creativity, and operational efficiency
Most striking of all, after continuing with the four-day week post-pilot, employee turnover was just 4% after 12 months
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We saw first hand the transformational benefits the four-day week could bring to a company, and decided we want to help other organisations reap those benefits too.
So, if you think it might be the right time to explore a four-day week at your organisation, we’d love to chat.
The pilot process
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We start with the bigger picture, using workshops and desk research to help you explore the possibilities of a four-day week at your organisation and decide whether to move ahead with pilot planning. If you do, we’ll help set your success criteria and a framework for an effective, efficient pilot design phase.
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Being well prepared is critical to a successful four-day week pilot. We can coordinate the full pilot preparation process, helping your team reshape their work for a four-day week. It’s a broad organisation-wide effort, so we’ll make sure you have crystal clear processes and communication throughout.
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Four-day week pilots will typically run for six months. We’ll regularly collect performance data and team feedback throughout the pilot and report back on progress against success criteria. We’ll also help you iterate your approach to the pilot to address any opportunities or challenges that surface during it.
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At the end of the pilot, we’ll deliver a full analysis of the pilot’s outcomes. Using this, we’ll help you make a decision on whether to make the four-day week permanent, extend the pilot, or take another route.
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The organisational change needed to make a four-day week work is like shaking up a snowglobe; cultures, processes and structures that felt unmovable are suddenly up in the air.
This gives leaders a golden opportunity to change fundamental aspects of your organisation. We’ll work with you to plan how to drive the change you want through the pilot - be that improved efficiency, resetting negative aspects of your culture, reshaping operations, or anything else.
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To make a four day-week work, your team needs to continue delivering the same key outcomes for the organisation, be they profit, income or impact. Everything we do is about helping your team figure out how to maintain or, even better, improve performance on your key organisational goals under a four-day week.
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We know that you’ll likely both be excited about the possibilities of a four-day week and wary of the risks that come with any change of this scale. Using our previous four-day week experience, it’s our job to help you identify and mitigate the risks while making the most of the benefits.
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Piloting a four-day week in a rigorous, strategic way needs a lot of thought and time from leadership. We’ll act as an extension of your leadership team, giving you the capacity to deliver the change without becoming overburdened.
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We believe in the transformative power of the four-day week. Indeed, we saw it first hand in our own business. But we’ve been in your shoes; we ran a company for eight years, so we understand the pressures and trade-offs that are unique to leaders of organisations.
So we’ll always be completely honest with our assessment of the pros and cons of a four-day week at your organisation. And if we don’t think it’s right for you yet, we’ll tell you.