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Flexible Working The Future of Work Work & Wellbeing

The 9-day fortnight: for one agency, the ‘compressed’ model is the new 4-day week

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By Ellen Ormesher, Senior Reporter

March 22, 2022 | 5 min read

A new trend in flexible working? The Drum talks to one agency about how the nine-day fortnight compares with the four-day week.

An empty office desk

Find out how one agency implemented its new flexible working policy

The four-day workweek is a model that has been much discussed and highly praised in recent years. And with a number of agencies in the industry boasting higher productivity and less staff turnover as a result of implementing a four-day week, it’s no surprise that the idea is appealing to staff and employers alike.

For many agencies, however, losing a day each week won’t be a feasible proposition. As an alternative, London-based strategic communications agency Stand has opted for the less conventional nine-day fortnight, giving employees a day to themselves every two weeks in which they can recharge their batteries or get involved in other projects.

The agency’s founder and managing director Laura Oliphant says the model was brought in during the pandemic. During lockdown, the pivot to flexible working meant the agency had cut out “a lot of inefficiencies” from the days of working 9am to 6pm in the office.

She says hybrid working between the office and remotely means people take meetings from home instead of travelling. ”As a team we’re much better at communicating virtually, so we’ve cut down on a lot of extraneous day-to-day inefficiencies.”

But the key driver behind the change was general fatigue and burnout from the team having worked through a difficult few years. “Creativity had dropped off, people weren’t getting out and about, and we felt we needed to do something radical to break the cycle and give people the space to go out and do more with their lives again.”

Oliphant says that, to a certain extent, the nine-day fortnight was inspired by the ‘compressed’ working model she took on after having a child. Unlike the four-day workweek pattern, which typically involves a three-day weekend with employees taking a Monday or Friday off, Stand’s model works on a rota system with employees taking a different day off each fortnight.

“No one has the same days off consecutively, but it means that everybody gets a long weekend three to four times a year. It means we can better manage the time off because we don’t need to worry about things like handovers.”

She adds that bank holidays are considered days off, just to ensure the agency doesn’t lose too much staff power over busy periods.

The challenging part of initial implementation was figuring out scheduling, but Stand has now invested in software to help alleviate any confusion. Oliphant says that while Stand has a relatively small headcount at 22 employees, she believes it would be even easier for larger companies to implement the same program.

“In a small agency that alternates between certain days, it might mean that some people never get the opportunity to work together, whereas in a larger organization that wouldn’t be felt as much.”

The crucial benefit of the system is that it means clients still have contact with the agency five days a week and don’t experience any negative side effects of certain team members being out of office.

“When we started doing this, I wrote to every client individually and we’ve had such a positive response.”

Clients gain the benefit of having a team that is well-rested and better engaged, she argues, while always having access to the communications services they require five days a week.

The model is still technically in its trial phase as the agency wants to ensure it can still keep up the pace during busy periods such as summer holidays. But Oliphant will make a decision before the period is over. ”I don’t need six months to know that this works.”

Flexible Working The Future of Work Work & Wellbeing

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