Recruitment company Highfield Professional Solutions implemented a six-month trial at the start of July 2021 for 4-day working week. Following reviews on the productivity, results, and feedback from both clients and employees, it has become clear that the new structure has benefited both the company and individuals within it.
The company has found productivity increasing over this time with a number of records being broken throughout the 6-month trial. Alongside this, work/life balance obviously improved, and more time could be spent with family and friends, as well as taking the opportunity for self-care, upskill, and complete everyday tasks that normally take up a weekend.
Following the decision to keep the 4-day weeks as a permanent benefit, the company has now made a further step forward by trialling unlimited holiday throughout 2022. This mean employees will now be able to take time off when they need to, without the restrictions of a traditional holiday ‘allowance’. While expecting the move will have a positive impact on employee wellbeing the company also places “discipline” as one of their core values, which means the onus is on each employee to manage their workload and time off accordingly.
“We started a six month 4-day work week trial in the summer and I am pleased to confirm the team made it an outstanding success so it is now a permanent benefit,” explains co-founder Liam Thomas. “Our FDWW isn’t condensed hours, but rather reduced hours. We work the same hours on the chosen 4 days and enjoy the benefits of a three-day weekend, every weekend. Even with this, we broke various records as a business this year, including most contractors, highest perm revenue, biggest perm fees, and first placements in China and the USA.
“Challenges were faced too as we realised a 4-day work week will not improve culture on its own,” Thomas notes. “You need a high level of trust, autonomy, commitment, and care to make it work, to which we took that chance in our teams. Booking annual leave has also been a challenge. Some people took too much, some people didn’t take enough. We didn’t get it right. In 2022 we will have an unlimited annual leave policy.”
Highfield describe themselves as being on a journey to become the best recruitment business to work for in the UK – a business that continuously tries to grow and stand out. To do this they will also seek to listen to what colleagues are asking for and work hard to ensure their voices are heard and acted upon.
