4-day week in agencies: a model for the future?

The 4-day working week model is currently the subject of heated debate and is part of the New Work movement. As the name suggests, the model involves spreading the working week over four days instead of the usual five. The number of working hours is either reduced or spread over four days.

Vereda, Raidboxes’ agency partner, has been trialling the 4-day week for its team since August 2021. The company has also reduced its working hours from 40 to 32 hours and the agency remains closed on Fridays. Co-founder Julian Junghöfer tells us what everyday working life is like at Vereda.

Julian, you introduced the 4-day week at your agency. How did this step come about? And what are your initial experiences?

The majority of companies in Germany and around the world currently work five days a week. The five-day week and fixed working hours have a long tradition and date back to the days of steam engines. Back then, the world of work depended on the running time of the machines.

We heard about the concept from Belgium and were very impressed. We then wanted to introduce the 4-day model here too and decided on a six-month test phase. After a year, we can say that we have benefited in all areas.

Advantages and disadvantages of the 4-day week

What are the specific advantages for your agency and the team?

More productive and creative employees
What we notice most clearly is an increase in the productivity of our employees. Productivity and performance have not collapsed, but have actually increased. The creativity of each individual employee has also increased thanks to more “me-time”.

Healthier employees
A third day off per week has a positive effect on employee satisfaction. A better work-life balance reduces stress, which leads to fewer sick days and thus enables a more effective way of working.

More flexibility for employees
An extra day off makes it easier for us to combine work and private life. It is also important to note that flexibility has been proven to boost productivity.

Increased attractiveness as an employer
As an agency that offers its employees a 4-day week, we stand out from other companies and thus increase our attractiveness as an employer. In sectors with a shortage of skilled labour, for example, this enables companies to attract potential employees.

There is also criticism of the model, as the work doesn’t decrease at the same time. What are you doing to ensure that the pressure on employees doesn’t increase?

The introduction of a 4-day week requires process optimisation. The workload has not increased but remained the same. The point is that we have changed the way we work and can therefore do the same amount of work in less time. At this point, you only ever have to ask “How?”. And this is exactly what has changed in our minds.

Attractive employers and junior staff

WordPress agencies are desperately looking for new talent. Have you received more applications with the new model? How do you generally manage to make yourselves attractive as an employer?

In our agency, we live “New Work” not only with the 4-day week, which is of course a big “applicant magnet”. As an employer, we also offer other benefits, such as a fresh, home-cooked lunch with the whole team every day, varied team events and the opportunity to work from anywhere at any time.

You have decided to be a training company. Why? And how high were the administrative hurdles along the way?

It is important to us to promote the next generation and to look after our own young talent. To become a training company, it is only necessary to be recognised by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce as a suitable training centre. And that an employee is personally and professionally qualified to lead the training, i.e. has a training licence.

Corporate culture and employees

Vereda is committed to diversity and gender equality, and you are on a first-name basis. How is it that you focus so strongly on values? And how does that go down with your customers?

How can you not place a strong emphasis on values these days? We are a young agency and therefore not only diversity is important to us, but especially our values (bold, efficient, transparent, personal, professional and enthusiastic). Being on first-name terms is an example of the personal level on which we want to communicate with our clients. And this is very well received by everyone.

It is difficult to find women as specialists in the technical field. How do you go about this?

In principle, we don’t care about the gender of our employees, we don’t have a quota for women or specifically look for certain employees. We are happy to welcome any team member who supports us with their professional skills.

About Vereda

A few words about you and Vereda?

I am a co-founder of vereda and have been building websites since I was 11 years old. I’ve tried a lot of things, from my own programming to website construction kits and content management systems, and I now know what works really well.

Even back then, I noticed that most websites (especially those of agencies) are built completely without a strategy and catalogue of requirements and therefore do not contribute to the goals set. In addition, the agency business is known for long working hours (including weekends) and a lot of deadline pressure.

To counteract this, we founded the digital agency vereda. In recent months, I have also been interviewed as an expert by various media (including WDR and ProSieben). In the meantime, we have successfully supported over 100 customers, including the harbour cheese dairy from Münster and the well-known surface manufacturer Elesgo.