Four day working week anyone? My findings from our trial to date.

On the advice of a wonderful friend of mine I joined the Institute of Leadership and Managment last year and one of the things I have enjoyed about my membership is the Edge magazine and its related insights. I read this week that Unilever have introduced a 4 day working week on full time pay. For most employees this will represent a 20% pay increase of course but more importantly for some it will give them a day of their working week back during which time they can do as they wish.

I have loved this concept since I first heard about it a few years ago and earlier this year we also introduced the same at Consilia Legal.We are trialling this for 6 months with our senior fee earners and personally Laura and I had trialled it from September 2020.

The MD of Unilever Nick Bangs is reported as stating that its "goal is to measure performance on output and not time "

As most law firms still utilise a time recording system and set targets around every 6 minutes of a fee earners day Im not sure how this will work for us as a legal practice yet.

Here are my findings however to date about our trial and the impact upon the business:-

1. We announced the scheme in January 2021 and the positive feedback from the team has been overwhelming. A colleague who worked a four day week but really felt they worked, and often did or made themselves available on the fifth day, immediately felt valued and more importantly I felt that this was a fairer representation of their contribution to the business. A colleague who has a young family now has time to spend with his children and this has saved childcare costs. Personally, as a busy mum to two boys, I find that this takes the stress out of my working work and allows me time for my life admin and my wider family committments. Ive worked part time and lets be honest a four day week isnt really ever part time is it? I also heard a managing partner in a law firm who openly said to a friend of mine in an interview that he loved working mums because they were so grateful for a job he could pay them less and for fewer days but still get a full time role out of them......This was less then 10 years ago.
2. In terms of output, this has not decreased in terms of fee earning and/or fee income. We have a team of 4 on both sides of the business and are really close knit. The four day week has stopped prevarication and procrasination certainly. Our meetings are focussed and to the point. Actions are taken or implemented without delay.
3. Our clients have not noticed or commented certainly and our service levels have not been impacted (to the best of our knowledge). We have not made a big deal of it. I am actively engaging with a feedback transparency scheme being trialled by the SRA and I will let you know if this changes. I dont think it will. Its a great time now to make changes.
4. We have found that this is an attractive proposition for self motivated lawyers who would like to depart from the traditional time recording systems and they feel that need some more independance and flexibility in their professional lives. As a niche and relatively young law firm we have found competing with larger firms in terms of salary offerings is not possible. Whilst we can make this up in bonus provision we appreciate that this might not be for everyone. Offering a different way of working is however attracting a good calibre of candidates.

So we have taken the jump and I will certainly let you know how we get on.

I'd love to hear from you if you have implemented any other successful outside the box ways of working and the impact on the business.

Have a great week

Marie