Member Article

Charity’s Four-Day Week Proving a Success

A local charity’s four-day week pilot is proving to be a huge success as staff retention increases and sickness levels reduce.

Spear headed by CEO Alison Dunn, Citizens Advice Gateshead is the first one in the national Citizens Advice Network to lead the way with the new model of working.

The charity embarked upon the trail-blazing pilot to benefit both its clients with extended hours and services and its staff with an innovative way of working that is already demonstrating that it is positively impacting on their wellbeing and performance.

Paul Oliver, Corporate Services Director at Citizens Advice Gateshead, carried out a review of the pilot to date and he said:

“Now at the mid-point of the trial, there are some positive trends emerging across the charity with client engagement, staff wellbeing and productivity gains.

“Sickness levels for the organisation are currently 10% down on levels from the summer before we changed to this way of working, which is even better considering sickness leave normally rises in the winter with the onset of viruses and flus. Our staff retention is up by 8% from 72% to 80% since before the trial, bucking the trend shown by other similar organisations recently.

“This is all very heartening, especially as the four-day week also has other positive impacts on society and the community, including reducing the impact on the environment, balancing of gender inequality and potentially increasing life expectancy. It feels like it is really making a difference in so many crucial ways.”

Citizens Advice Gateshead is one of just 70 UK based organisations that have joined the national 4-Day Week trial, where they get support, advice and access to mentoring from companies who have successfully completed the trial already. Having onboarded the trial in July, the charity initial scheduled a 6-month trial, but because of the positive impact seen to date, the trial has been extended until March. Alison said:

“We will be using this information from our mid-point survey to inform the next stage in implementing organisation-wide efficiencies and formulate a proposal for the long term. This, over time, will enable the charity to better meet the needs of clients at times that suit them outside of the usual 9am to 5pm, which is one of the main drivers behind the pilot.

“Furthermore, our organisational KPI’s are performing well as we are meeting or exceeding our client numbers with no negative impacts across service. Looking more closely at our client facing teams, there are some really encouraging stories of improved efficiencies leading to increased client engagement and more engaged and productive staff.

“We are seeing a reduction in workplace stress and burnout; and an increase in job satisfaction along with an improvement in staff physical and mental health - that can only be a positive thing that should be given long-term consideration.”

Excitingly these results already allow the leadership team to explore a number of opportunities to launch out of hours services over weekends in partnership with other local organisations. This will allow Citizens Advice Gateshead to continue with the narrative of using the 4-day week as a lever to break out of the 9-5 working model and the continued expansion of services.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Toms .