As I reach nearly four and half years at London Funders, I can honestly say I feel privileged to have a genuinely flexible, compassionate and understanding employer, and on top of that I get to work with people (in the team here, and across our membership) who are committed to making London a fairer society.
However, we also know from many studies and our own experience that commitment and passion at work can bring with it pressures on people’s wellbeing. Our understanding of what constitutes a regular working pattern has also shifted, and as people juggle different priorities in and outside work, employers are looking to respond. So, while we have high standards for what we want to deliver for our members our communities, we also wanted to think differently about how we might achieve this.
As an organisation we already try and be flexible to each staff member’s circumstances and offer a variety of resources to encourage and support wellbeing – which covers everything from enhanced remote working arrangements to access to health support. But work/life balance – while a bit of a buzzword -remains something on our minds at London Funders. How can we support people’s careers while also providing time for other responsibilities staff might have or opportunities they want to pursue outside work (and which as an employer, we might indirectly reap the benefits of)? How can we create a culture that encourages wellbeing and personal growth, but still gives us the time to get the job done as effectively as possible?
There have been countless articles over the last few years about the four day working week, its benefits for individuals, organisations and even wider society and the environment. The more I read the more it sounded like a no brainer. For organisations it claims to bring more productivity, more efficiency, better staff retention and less staff absence. And for individuals a day less working and reducing hours – doesn’t this all sound a bit too good to be true? Over the past year we’ve been delving into the evidence to help us think about how this could inform our approach at London Funders.
How can we create a culture that encourages wellbeing and personal growth, but still gives us the time to get the job done as effectively as possible?
The evidence so far
In a report published by the think tank Autonomy and leading academics at the University of Cambridge and Boston College, the results found:
- Almost every company (92%) that took part in a pilot decided to continue with the four-day week long-term.
- It’s good for our health: ‘before and after’ data shows that 39% of employees were less stressed, and 71% had reduced levels of burnout. Levels of anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues decreased, while mental and physical health both improved.
- Measures of work-life balance improved: respondents found it easier to balance their work with both family and social commitments, and were more satisfied with their household finances, relationships and time management.
- Job retention increases: there was a substantial decline (57%) in the likelihood that an employee would quit.
- There was a 65% reduction in the number of sick days.
While the stats are impressive, they do come with notes of caution. Whilst we aren’t a large organisation we still had the same questions and worries about how it can work in reality. If we were to do this, how much planning time do we need, will the team be on board, how does it work for part time staff, how does it affect our policies and contracts, will our board be supportive (spoiler: yes), and importantly how can we ensure we retain the high quality delivery we are all committed to (and even enhance this)?
Our planning
Inspired by other small charities taking on the challenge (including our members B&D Giving – you can read their blog here), we set to think how we could tailor and make this work for us.
In our strategy we have ambitions to build a better London but we haven’t spoken much about what that means internally. How do our policies and practices live up to that? This felt like an opportunity to practice what we preach. Whilst taking inspiration and learning from the four day week, we also wanted to push it a bit further to offer more flexibility and different ways of working.
We landed on a core ideal for a trial period, from the 4-day week campaign, that the working week reduces to 32 hours and there are no changes to salaries. We took this to the board asking permission to carry out staff consultations and a six month trial from October – March. Following discussions challenging our own and their thinking it was agreed that we could move forward.
From there each staff member was presented and consulted with options of how they might want to work. As this is a trial period we need certain parameters and baselines to be able to reflect and see if this is truly working for individuals and the organisation. The trial options are:
- Four-Day Week: Working eight hour days across four days
- Nine day fortnight (64 hours): Recognising that longer days aren’t attractive to everyone, this allows staff to work nine days at roughly seven hour days with one day off a fortnight
- Nine day fortnight (72 hours): Recognising that for some people switching off takes longer than a day a week, and allowing for more extended time off, this allows staff to work eight hour days across nine days gaining more annual leave for the ‘extra’ hours worked.
Our Commitment to Evaluation
Despite all the positive learning and success stories being shared, we can’t take for granted that it will be an overnight success for us. To monitor how it’s working we’ll be ensuring:
- Regular Feedback: Through line managers and team meetings we want to understand team members’ experiences, concerns, and suggestions to continuously improve our approach
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Working with an independent HR team we are collecting data on productivity, employee satisfaction, and other key metrics to make informed decisions about the future of our workplace model
- Adaptability: We remain flexible in our approach. If certain areas of the trial are clearly not working for the team, we are open to making adjustments as we go.
Whilst this is still a trial, and ultimately our board will review the outcomes to see how we progress during and after it’s completed, it’s exciting to be trying something new. We're not just trialling new ways of working; we're trying to establish a cultural shift that values well-being, flexibility, and productivity. If the trial is a success, our ambition would be to expand the flexibility on what we can offer.
London Funders is a small organisation with big ambitions to build a better London: ultimately we want to find ways of working which enable us to achieve these as effectively as possible. We believe that by embracing change and sharing our journey with you we can also begin to put our ambitions of being an exemplary employer into practice. In practical terms, we remain open for business five days a week, and all our programme delivery will continue as normal. And if anything feels different – let us know!
If you are interested in learning more from us, or sharing your own learning, please get in touch – grace.perry@londnfunders.org.uk