We’re Two Months Into Our Alternative Work Week Pilot

When ReadySet leadership first presented the idea of an Alternative Work Week (AWW) pilot, my colleagues and I were confused. We had questions: “How will this work?,” “What will our clients think?,” “Will we have to work longer days?,” and “How will this impact our pay structure?”. Our internal AWW working group took on many of these questions as we launched the pilot. We created a detailed guide on the why, the how and the the ways in which ReadySetters would be supported. As consultants and people scientists, when we launch a pilot, we always want to understand if the changes proposed will have positive organizational impacts.

Our internal AWW working group hoped that this program would improve employee well-being, productivity, and creativity, in addition to increasing overall organizational productivity and efficiency. Before launching the AWW pilot it was important for us to get good starting data so we conducted an employee-led baseline assessment. As our COO, Rachel mentions in her blog post “Introducing the Alternative Work Week Pilot”, this baseline and subsequent measurements will give us data to determine expansion opportunities and adjust our approach real time as we tackle productivity and mental health. We had over a 75% response rate.

Here are a few key insights.

96% of our employees report being happy with their current job. However, less than half (44%) are satisfied with their current work-life balance.

This result is important as job satisfaction is an indicator for many outcomes including burnout and turnover. It can also indicate the overall mental health picture of an organization. ReadySet is a high-touch boutique firm and we have a lot of passion for the purpose-driven work that we do. In fact 63% of employees reported that they feel energized and excited to do client work. However, as researchers indicate, this type of client service work can breed obsessive passion which can lead to burnout, despite the drive and love we have for the work itself. 

Here at ReadySet, we understand the impact our work has on our clients as well as our employees. Our AWW pilot is one tool we are leveraging to see if we can strike a balance between the high-touch nature of our consultancy, the passion our consultants have for this work, and the potential burnout that can happen as a result of that purpose-driven work. Additionally, as part of the long-term impact assessment, we hope to get more insights that can inform our approach to capacity management, including proactively addressing employee bandwidth and testing out responsive staffing models. 

For ReadySet, giving an additional Friday off, once a month, outside of the traditional model of holiday closures, is one way we can give our employees more “life” time back. We asked our staff what they did for their first Friday off and we received some rest and recovery responses such as “slept in,” “read a book,” and “woke up early for a hike.” Others spoke to “doing life stuff” like chores or errands. Some of the parents and caregivers on the team found themselves with additional time alone, as childcare was already arranged for the day. As we expected, not everyone took a full rest day and instead focused on creating space that would help to improve their own capacity on non-AWW days. We heard: “updated my calendar to decrease the amount of check-ins needed,” “worked half the day on my own time,” and “caught up a backlog of work with more self pacing which led to a balanced weekend.” 

As of the publishing of this blog post, we’ll be almost two months into this pilot. So far this initial baseline data has been the evidence we needed to validate that the AWW pilot was the right decision for us. Looking ahead, we have two check-ins planned for this summer that will focus on how the AWW pilot is going and soliciting real-time feedback. We also have created a Slack channel for ongoing discussion and a separate monitored survey form that can be filled out with feedback at any time during the pilot. Ultimately, we hope that all these touch points will help us build a better understanding of how our alternative work week impacts mental health and burnout, overall productivity, and employee engagement. Stay tuned for more employee perspectives on the new ReadySet Alternative Work Week pilot.

Next month, Zoe King, will be focusing on wellness as it relates to alternative work schedules.