A Tyneside digital agency has announced plans to switch to a four-day work week for all staff – with no loss of pay for employees working a shorter week.

Evolved Search, based at the Toffee Factory in Ouseburn, Newcastle, has decided to offer its 45 employees a shorter work week on a six-month trial basis, in the hope of improving wellbeing and offering a better work-life balance.

The agency, formed in 2014 and crowned Search Agency of the Year in January 2021 at the Northern Digital Awards, has taken up the concept following reports that Iceland’s successful four-year trial of working four days per week resulted in employees feeling happier, more focused, and more productive. Trials are also now ongoing in Spain and New Zealand.

Tom Etherington, operations director at Evolved Search said: “Through continued growth and bringing in the right people and clients to work with, we’ve found that we’re able to offer more flexibility to staff and it’s exciting to be adopting this approach.

“We’ve been working from home since March 2020 and our team now have a better work-life balance and are able to get on and do their best work, which in turn has had a positive impact on client results and overall efficiency.

“We know we’ll need to adapt as it’s a significant change for a 50+ person business, but the last 18 months, in particular, have shown that we’re more than capable of this.”

The four-day work week will be trialled from August through to the end of January 2022 – six months overall – to gather data on staff wellbeing, efficiency, and more. Should it be successful, the senior management team anticipates a permanent rollout of the approach.

Employees will work 32 hours per week instead of their current 35 contracted hours and there will be no loss of pay or benefits for anyone taking a four-day week.

Equally, should individuals choose to work 32 hours over five days and therefore work shorter days, this is also permitted.

Sinead Hall, head of people at Evolved Search added: “The pandemic has highlighted what many of us in HR already knew – people work in different ways and the employer’s role is to allow them the freedom and flexibility to do their best work.

“As we prepare to return to more normality and update our policies to allow staff to work between home and our office, it seemed like the best time to roll this initiative out.

“With a shortening of the working week and enabling our people to design a way of working that compliments their personal life, we hope to improve employee satisfaction, maintain our high levels of staff retention, and attract new people from a wider range of backgrounds.”