The power of four

For the past year, Exfluency? has been on an exciting journey: back in February 2022, we started cutting down on working hours while upscaling our revenue. We are pretty proud of our results, and we would like to share some of our insights.

We chatted with Exfluency’s Chief of Staff, Alma Oprasic, to ask her why we decided to go on this journey in the first place.

“At Exfluency, we just want to do things right. And what could be better than looking into how we can make our colleagues happier? We started out by researching work-life balance challenges. All the data indicated that introducing a four-day workweek is one important step towards a more balanced work life. We knew what we had to do: give our colleagues time to recharge and develop on a personal level – to improve our well-being and creative nature as individuals and as a company.”

But how can it be that more can come from less? For the past year, our teams have proved to be more productive. By using simple techniques such as having focus slots in our calendars, shortening all meetings with 10-15 min., and by building more agile teams we learned how to work smarter and were able to meet our objectives.

The entire process was an exercise in step-by-step implementation: we started off by cutting just half a day for a select group of employees. Then, we extended that to the whole company. Finally, six months ago, we extended the model and cut 20% of our working hours across all teams.

“What’s crucial is that the model is flexible and fits us as a company. Every team member has been a key driver of the process; every team has had full autonomy in coming up with a schedule that works best for them. A transformation like this is a huge team effort. I am so grateful that our people took up the challenge and made it possible to get to this point, where we can proudly say that we are a four-day workweek company”, Alma explains.

In the process, we have supported our teams with workshops and surveys in collaboration with a coach specialising in corporate mindfulness*, while our management focused on continuously providing our colleagues with the necessary support.

The results are clear: after our test run, everyone has chosen to stick with the four-day workweek. We achieved all our weekly and monthly goals, our stress levels went down, and we have become more resilient and satisfied with our work lives.

“In the period since we started trialling our four-day workweek model, our revenue has experienced an exponential growth, we have onboarded new employees, and we‘ve been undergoing important developments of processes and new functionalities on our platform. Our ‘80-100-100 model’** has proven to work both for the company and our colleagues. It should be the new normal in our society if you ask me.”, says Alma.

If it isn’t obvious, let us be clear: the secret is that it is not about how many hours we work but how we use that time. At Exfluency, we couldn’t be happier with our decision to implement a four-day workweek. We can most highly recommend it to other companies considering doing the same!

If you would like to hear more or share experiences, please contact our Chief of Staff, Alma Oprasic, anytime.

*A big thanks goes out to Maria M?rsk, tactuus, for following us through the process and supporting us with valuable knowledge about mental health and a healthy work-life balance.

** 80% working hours – 100% salary – 100% productivity