Workplace productivity, longer agent retention, and higher customer satisfaction.
These are just some of the suggested and proven benefits of introducing a four day work week into contact centres.
That’s right. No longer must agents complete a mind-numbing five (or even) six day cycle where they wake up filled with dread about which customers are going to upset them and how they’re going to juggle their childcare arrangements to cover yet more overtime. Instead, some contact centres, like Atom bank, have successfully adopted the four day work week.
“Over six months on from introducing our new four-day working week, it’s clear that it has been a huge success for our business and our people” said Anne-Marie Lister, Chief People Officer at Atom bank.
In fact, Atom’s internal survey suggests that 91% of employees can do everything they need to in four days.
Other benefits include:
- Fewer sick days (32% decrease)
- Wider talent pool (49% increase in applications)
- Increase in customer trust (increase from 4.54 to 4.82 on Trustpilot)
- Improve employee satisfaction (92% of employees said that they look forward to work)
Jennifer Shepherd, Brand and Communications Lead at Atom bank, shared her personal benefit of Atom adopting the four day work week:
“Thanks to Atom bank, I’ve had nearly 100 extra days to spend with her (her daughter) than I would have had working almost anywhere else, as we enjoyed our special ‘Mammy and Izzy days’ every Friday. It’s easy sometimes to take work perks for granted, but this is one I’ll be forever grateful for, as time really is the most precious gift of all.”
It sounds pretty, good right?
So, how do you go about this in the right way?
1 - Gather business requirements
First up, you need to learn some home truths about your contact centre.
Gathering metrics like average number of calls per week, average handle time, and which agents are skilled across which channels is vital to understanding who can handle specific enquiries and how to create a balance across your channel mix.
If you don’t have holistic reporting in place, you’re probably not ready to make such a business-changing move. However, you can start this journey by setting up automated data-gathering analytics that come as part and parcel of modern contact centre software.
Next up, you must gather employee availability. This might sound easy as everyone is already working Monday to Friday, 9-5. Realistically, this means ensuring all hours are covered and moving agent shifts to cover extra hours.
For example, if you operate a 24/7 support line, you must balance the fewer agent hours available with either more agents, self-service technology, or good planning. If you use workforce management software, you can get an accurate prediction of how many agents you need at any given time based on historical data.
Likewise, agents should be able to suggest which new day(s) off they have. You might be closing the office on a Friday altogether. But you might also choose to implement four day shifts split over different days. A Monday or Wednesday off may benefit specific agents more than others.
It could be something as trivial as having a friend who also has a day off on Tuesday so now you can play golf together midweek. But you wouldn’t rank this as highly as someone who struggles to get childcare on certain days.
2 - Set customer and employee expectations
If you’re changing your business hours in line with your agent’s work week, you must overcommunicate this change to your customers.
Start off by:
- Measuring which days have the fewest customer queries
- Estimating the business impact
- Reviewing internal process
- Planning shift patterns
If you choose Friday because you have the fewest calls, inform customers the change is coming as soon as you’ve committed to the decision. The more notice they have the better.
Make sure you:
- Send an email to all customers
- Resend that email to any unopened emails (instructions for Mailchimp here)
- Add a note to their next invoice
- Play a message on your call queues
- Build a line into your agent scripts
While you’ve decided this decision is best for your business, employees, and customers, protecting that decision is by far the most important step. Failure to notify customers could prove detrimental in the long run.
Likewise, you must give employees time to prepare. If you’re adjusting shifts to cover different hours, agents (who are humans too) need to make considerable changes.
Consider the impact of:
- New bus/train times
- Cost of amended childcare
3 - Run a pilot scheme
The biggest question is whether agents must work the same number of hours in a shorter period of time. This was the conventional way to introduce a four day work week in years gone by.
For example, instead of working 9-5, Monday to Friday, and totalling 40 hours, businesses would try and cram 40 hours between Monday and Thursday.
Instead, the proven method is one used by Kickstarter, who asked its employees to work 32 hours per week rather than 40. The expectation was they would achieve the same productivity levels while earning the same pay as they did during a 40 hour week.
This requires a shift in mindset (moving to outcome-based metrics rather than timebound) but it also requires an experimental phase.
Run a pilot scheme with a set number of users. Choose a study group of those who’ve expressed the potential for a four day week or those who are likely to champion the program. By proving success early on, you can gain further supporters and get wider business buy-in.
Paul Holbrook, Founder of Diary Detox, commented on the success of Atom bank’s pilot:
“Many organisations worry about such a pilot wondering how they'll fit five days' work into four. But most of us lose a day a week through unnecessary meetings, emails, and interruptions so you actually only have to fit four days of work into four!”
Unpacking Paul’s comment, focusing on reducing unnecessary meetings, emails, and interruptions must be high on your list of requirements during this pilot phase. Encourage staff (even management) to think twice about whether everyone needs to attend that meeting or read that email. This will prove a pivotal factor in time saved across the work week.
Assuming the success of your pilot, it’s time to roll out across your organisation. It’s always suggested to do this iteratively. Though, you may experience jealousy of departments that don’t get to go first.
Plan a response to this to avoid souring the experience for those who don’t benefit immediately. Explain the rationale behind your phased approach and plan for an incentive or compensation plan in the interim.
As you continue your roll out, and forever into the future, make sure you’re always striving for continuous improvement. What works one day may change as employees and customers become accustomed to your new work week.
Build in review cycles at least twice a year to make sure your people, processes, and technology are optimum for your way of working.
Failure to incorporate this vital component could mean reverting back to five days. You can guarantee there will be pushback, unhappy staff, and high agent churn then.
Conclusion: the 4-day work week is outdated and no longer for purpose
Those are the words of Joe Ryle, Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign.
“Companies should embrace the four-day week as a way of boosting productivity, improving wellbeing, and to help with job retention.”
With small businesses, enterprises, freelancers, and now even contact centres not just on board but proving the productivity and health benefits of a four day work week, there’s little argument left.
Sure, there will be some work to get there. And some agents may push back. But, on the whole, the reported improvement in metrics suggests making the upfront effort is a project with a significant return on investment.