Stamford businessman Matt Munro pioneers four-day working week at Peterborough-based insurance firm iGO4
A Stamford businessman is helping pioneer a new four-day working week where staff work fewer hours for the same salary.
Digital insurance business iGO4 launched the strategy this month where staff work an extra hour over four days, cutting a 37-and-a-half-hour week to 34.
Matt Munro, CEO and founder of the Peterborough-based business, believes happier and healthier employees will improve productivity and performance.
"We tested some of this last year and we are very confident we can make it work," said Matt.
"When working five days you get to the weekend and you almost have that second job - running your kids around, doing things that need to be done at home.
"This creates that gap so people have a proper chance to refresh.
"From a business perspective I think we will have less sickness, less attrition and people will be more productive because in those four days they will have a clearer mindset."
The company has also made a permanent move into hybrid working - combining working from home and in the office - as well as some permanent home-working roles where it suits both employees and the business.
It is another example of shifting working habits which had been enforced by the pandemic.
Matt, who has two sons at Stamford School, was determined that lessons were learned.
“Covid has shattered many of the myths of the modern workplace," he added.
"It taught us that we could be productive in a four-day week as we invested heavily in technology and introduced new ways of working, making ourselves more efficient and productive in the process.
"Through the first lockdown I saw a lot more of my family than I normally would have done.
"I have two boys growing up fast and having that time is really important."
He believes it is a shifting culture that businesses across the region - and nationally - will have to adopt
"The old ways of working are done, that's my point of view," he added
"If you go back, people used to work six days a week. The norm is the norm, but over the last two years that has been challenged and taken out of our hands.
"It's a much bigger market now in terms of people getting flexibility and I think companies will put their own strategies in place and realise they have to change or people will leave."
The company has introduced others benefits to make them more attractive in an employees' market, including private medical cover, enhanced maternity leave, and fully-paid paternity leave.
Employees are also free to do two days of volunteering work each year.
The new model is being piloted over the next six months, but Matt, who set up the business from scratch 12 years ago, is confident it will work for staff and customers.
"We have done this because I think it's the right thing to do," he said.
"We will test it but I have no concerns that we will be able to make it work."
Visit www.igo4careers.co.uk for information on current job vacancies.
