Sunderland, UK-based virtual and hybrid events platform StreamGo has announced that it will implement a four-day working week.
The organisation’s 18 employees will initially move to a 32-hour working week from 35 hours as of 22 November in order to see how it affects operations, allowing the business to resolve any unforeseen challenges that may arise. It will then move to a four-day 28-hour week by mid-2022 with no alterations to pay or benefits, with staff effectively gaining more than 50 days of annual leave in addition to their existing allowance.
According to the business, which has seen its revenue increase by 600% and doubled its headcount in the past 18 months as a result of a rise in demand for virtual events platform, the positive impact on reducing stress levels, increasing productivity and boosting team engagement are all key drivers for the change.
StreamGo founder and production director Richard Lee commented that the company is putting measures in place to make sure events will continue to run smoothly as he believes a change to a shorter working week will be a fundamentally “huge positive” for staff and clients, as the team will be fresher and even more motivated than ever.
He explained that this is something the team has wanted to share for a number of months now, as everyone is “incredibly excited” to start rolling out the new shorter working policy.
“As part of our phased approach to this change we’ll initially close on Fridays at 12:30pm in UK time, as this is often our quietest period for client requests. Our clients shouldn’t notice any difference in our service. We’ll continue to deliver events on Friday afternoons but use a flexible approach with our production teams to make sure they still benefit from the shorter working week,” Lee said.