The firm said it received “overwhelming responses” from employees on the importance of work-life balance and wellbeing at a recent company vision “where the whole team came together to share ideas, goals and expectations, it was made clear that a shift in how we work was at the top of the list”.
 
There is no compressed schedule or loss of pay, meaning that everyone at Highfield works for four days – Mondays to Thursdays – while they are paid for five. The goal is to improve productivity as well as employee satisfaction with the three-day weekend.

“An extra day each week has been shown to create opportunities for upskilling, volunteering and caregiving, reducing the stress and pressure that workers may be under during the traditional five-day weeks,” the company said.

“We are using Q3 to trial this new way of working, with the hopes that by the end of the quarter (1 October 2021) we will be able to keep four-day weeks as a permanent working structure,” the company said. “Support is being given to our teams to help organise their time and efficiently plan out the shorter week. It has been important for us to be more innovative with automation so that we can still be contacted and available on the one day a week we are no longer scheduled to work.”

Co-founder Liam Thomas adds: “A global pandemic has brought work-life balance to the forefront of everyone’s minds here at Highfield and Data X Connect. One of the team put forward a proposal of a reduced working week with a reduced salary. We liked the idea, but we didn’t want to ask anyone to take a reduction in salary or benefits.

“We have always been a colleague-focused business, but we felt like we could do more. It was the right time to be bold, push things further and try a new initiative.”

Research from Henley Business School found that four-day working weeks increased the overall quality of life for employees, with over three quarters (78%) of businesses implementing it saying staff were happier, less stressed (70%) and took fewer days off ill (62%).

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