The companies participating in this report receive many resumes. “Much, much more than before,” explains Fernando Polo, CEO of digital marketing agency Good Rebels. The “before” of these companies was to work five days a week, which is normal for the majority of workers in Spain. Now they work four days at this company, splitting a 32-hour day with the same pay as before the move.
In addition to CVs, these companies also receive many questions. The companies in their sector, the competition, want to know how they can follow the same path, how they can shorten one day in the work week and that this doesn’t affect their results. At the moment there are few exceptions in Spain, but there are more and more in other countries, such as Great Britain, which has just published the very positive results of a trial carried out in recent months: 56 of the 61 participating companies have extended the Measure.
Next, six managers from companies that introduced the four-day work week in Spain (some with 32 hours a week, others with around 36) without reducing wages explain this transition.
What the company must have done before the step. “It makes no sense to suddenly switch to a four-day shift. In the past, many other measures had to be taken to enable flexibility in the company,” explains Ana Arroyo, HR manager at technology company Software Delsol. For the four-day shift at work, he considers it essential that a culture be installed in the company that punishes personal presence and promotes work according to goals. “Also,” he continues, “it’s very difficult to apply this when the company is precarious, wages are low or contracts are temporary.”
Almost all the companies consulted used teleworking before the four-day shift. The success of remote employment encouraged her to take the next step. “The jump to remote work scared us even more, we weren’t sure it would work. But it was great like working four days. In the end, giving workers more freedom so they are happier is the same,” explains Juanpe Granados, CEO of digital agency Estati.Co. “The pandemic has impressively shown that you can be just as efficient from home. Those who are committed to their office work are even more so when you make it easy for them,” adds Mamen González, Head of Human Resources at Simeom Capital Group.
Who comes up with the idea? “In our case, it was the members who offered the opportunity to work four days,” says María Álvarez, joint manager of the Madrid restaurant La Franachela and the communications company Ephimera. “The idea came to us during detention, which was hell. There was a time when schools were closed, but we worked. A reconciliation was impossible. I remember the WhatsApp groups of school moms where everyone said how angry they were. So we asked ourselves what we could do to at least improve the lives of our workers.” The four-day week in his vulnerable hospitality industry is particularly noticeable. “It sounded crazy when my partner told me, but it’s going really well.” At the technology company Tecalis, too, the initiative comes from the management. “At some point we realize we can go one step further, which is the natural progression of the rest of the work flexibility measures we’ve taken,” says Isidoro Martínez, the company’s CEO.
Partners Elena García and María Álvarez at La Francachela restaurant.
What changes need to be made in the employment relationship? Simeom Capital’s human resources director explains that the company has added an appendix to the contracts of workers in the department where the four-day shift applies. However, other companies have not changed anything. “It wasn’t necessary,” Granados explains, since flexibility in scheduling was inherent in the relationship with his workers.
How to organize it and what changes to make. In the six companies surveyed, employees can extend their weekend by giving Monday or Friday off. “It’s better than splitting up the week than taking a Wednesday off in the middle of the week,” says Granados. At Software Delsol, the shifts change so that they go from Friday to Monday every four or five weeks. “That means the workers have a four-day long weekend almost once a month. It’s an ace up your sleeve,” explains Arroyo. This dynamic also occurs at Simeom Capital: “It’s an added joy.”
One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that the service to the customer is the same on Mondays and Fridays when fewer employees are working. “To organize it well, the layers must be clear so that the service is not affected. You have to balance the excel so that the attention is equal,” adds Arroyo. The Good Rebels executive has the same message: “Shifts are key to make the customer feel like everything stays the same.”
On the other hand, most companies did not have to hire new employees to implement the four-day week. “It boils down to making better use of time,” adds Polo. There were incorporations to implement this model in Software Delsol and in the business units where Simeom Capital developed it. “I sat down with the managers of each team to figure out how many people they would need or how to do it,” says González, the director of human resources.
How to do the same in few hours. According to all companies that allow the four-day shift, this point is the most important. In La Franchela for example they changed the menu. “We removed some broken eggs that were costing us a lot of time and replaced them with mojo potatoes that we could do with more agility. In addition, customers ask what they want from the table via WhatsApp, with a system that converts conversations into ticketing.” At Granados’ company, they work with a task manager: “We carry out a comprehensive audit of the times in the office, to be clear how much we devote to each assignment and to know if it is adequate or more than necessary.”
Office of the Good Rebels in Madrid.MOEH ATITAR
Polo from Good Rebels assures that his company now thinks very carefully about whom to invite to every meeting. “There are many outdated ways of working in offices that need to change. It doesn’t make sense that there are eight of us in a meeting where there should only be four of us. In addition, there are no two-hour meal breaks in his company, a classic of the Spanish labor market that greatly lengthens the days. “In the end,” Polo continues, “the key is to use time more consciously, not waste it, and manage it better.” “It is important that the employee achieves the goals. As long as they aren’t overwhelming, what difference does it make to us how it’s organized and if it manages to fulfill them in fewer hours,” adds Granados, convinced that a worker doesn’t do “eight hours straight straight”.
What problems arise. The biggest fear of the business people who have implemented these systems is receiving the customers. “There were comments from customers who were concerned that the service seemed affected, but once they confirmed that it wasn’t, everything went perfectly,” says the Tecalis CEO, who also saw the employees’ stress, having to do this do more tasks in less time: “It doesn’t happen. This measure facilitates reconciliation and productivity so much that, in my opinion, the stress does not increase”. “Customers are very supportive, they even ask us how we do it to see it first hand,” they add from Good Rebels. “I think it hurts communication a bit as some days we don’t all work at the same time, but there are undoubtedly more pros than cons,” concludes Software Delsol. Álvarez evaluates some of these benefits: “There’s less staff turnover, employees are happier and more engaged, they attract more talent, they’re more productive… It’s a real achievement.”
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