Leeds companies Eventure and Surgical Innovations trialling four-day working week with no loss of pay

100 UK companies recently committed to a permanent four-day working week for employees and Eventure and Surgical Innovations are exploring the possibility for their members of staff. Workers at staffing agency Eventure will reduce their hours as opposed to compressing their time into fewer days and will not have their salaries impacted. Employees at medical devices manufacturers Surgical Innovations are condensing hours as part of the trial but are not having pay reduced.

The trials being undertaken by the two companies have been organised by 4 Week Day Global and Eventure founder Charli Briggs has said her company is on a “mission to improve work-life balance”. She said: “If we can find better ways of working that will make our people and business happier and more productive, why wouldn’t we try it?

"We’re on a mission to improve work-life balance alongside improving our service delivery to clients. We have realised that the four-day working week doesn’t mean the business has to close. We will be staggering days off with mixed teams to ensure the business continues to operate with zero disruption to clients or Eventurers.”

Eventure has reported ‘overwhelmingly positive’ feedback from employees, who are said to be relishing the prospect of having time to pursue their own interests and personal development. Senior account executive Sasha Green said: “Eventure has always made me feel like a valued member of the team but the latest announcement of our move to a trial of the four-day working week has confirmed it.”

Surgical Innovations launched their trial back in August and a spokesperson for the company said: “At Surgical Innovations, the health and wellbeing of our employees is paramount, and we strongly believe that a healthy work life balance is a great way to achieve this.

“We are proud to have partnered with the official 4 Day Week Global Pilot and the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, who will guide us on this journey over the next six months. The trial will involve condensing weekly working hours, spread over four days, at no loss of pay to staff. This is the next step on our journey to making Surgical Innovations an outstanding place to work.”