CEO – Paul McNulty – recently made a bold move, offering the entire 3D Issue team the option of a 20% pay rise or a four-day working week. Everybody opted for the shorter week rather than an increase in pay, so the switch will be made to the new arrangement from the start of April.
Advantages of a four-day working week
- Companies trialling 4-day working weeks discovered boosts to productivity, engagement, job satisfaction, work-life balance and employee well-being.
- Costs – including those linked to commuting, office overheads and so on – can be drastically reduced by switching to a shorter week.
- Rewarded by a “free day”, workers feel more invested to use their time productively, getting creative to boost their efficiency and effectiveness.
“Eliminating any detrimental impact on customer service levels played a key part in my decision-making. But, with our global customer base, we’re already adept at managing time-zone differences. And for customer-facing functions, we have at least two people in every role. With one group working from Monday to Thursday and the other from Tuesday to Friday, we’ll be able to offer seamless support to our customers. We’re also actively recruiting for a number of new positions using the funds that were available for the pay increase,” says Paul McNulty.
Innovator, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Andrew Barnes – an advisor for 4 Day Week campaigns in Ireland and the USA and on the board of the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University – is a keen advocate of the four-day working week arrangement,
“With its emphasis on productivity, the four-day week tackles hard issues facing our world, for example stress and the breakdown in mental health, gender equality in pay, and the environmental crisis. Four-day weeks offer significant societal benefits from relief of congested highways and public transport systems, reduction in healthcare costs, through to more harmonious families and more purposeful lives.”
Notes:
- 3D Issue was established in 2007 and has grown organically ever since, without funding or investment.
- The company employs 20 people, many of them – including a number of developers – already working remotely for at least part of the week.
- The company has more than 4000 active users of its flip-books’ software.
