Less days but staff become more productive
A Dundee-based social enterprise has introduced a four-day working week for its staff team in a bid to increase work/life balance.
The full-time staff at The Circle will now be working compressed hours to allow them to have an extra rest day every week.
The Circle has been running for nearly four years and in that time has supported hundreds of individuals, charities, social enterprises, community groups and small businesses through its work and has been named one of the UK’s top social enterprises two years in a row.
Despite the limitations to the organisation as a result of the lockdown, The Circle was still able to deliver much needed support to their client groups. During the lockdown period The Circle changed delivery of their training programme to be entirely online, helped secure funding for their facility’s tenants and other third sector organisations and delivered a new project to provide activity packs to children in deprived areas of Dundee.
According to founder Kirsty Thomson, the decision to reduce the number of working days for the team has come after seeing what they have been able to achieve during the lockdown period.
“When we closed temporarily in March, we had to make a lot of changes to the way we work. We still managed to achieve so much during that period with many staff of furlough and limitations on what we could deliver,” she said.
“Work-life balance and staff wellbeing has always been a priority for us, but during lockdown we had to be even more mindful of this. By having reduced working days our staff can achieve just as much while having more time for themselves. We aim to be a pioneering force within our sector and beyond. We hope to see more organisations implementing reduced working days and other measures to support staff wellbeing.”
Member of The Circle team, Jenny McCarthy, added: “In just a short space of time this new initiative has made a big difference in the team. We have an extra day to focus on our wellbeing and we’re achieving so much because we’re more motivated and energised.”
