Back in June 2022 we began trialling a 4 day week here at Hutch, and we can now officially announce that the 4 Day Week will continue! We joined 4 Day Week Global’s official trial alongside 70 other companies taking part to show the value of the change to working practices. And we ran this across our 3 offices in London, Dundee and Nova Scotia. During the trial our productivity remained stable, and we also saw lower turnover of staff and higher job offer acceptance rates. As a winner of the gamesindustry.biz Best Place to Work award for the last 3 years, the wellbeing of staff was paramount to us when taking part in the trial and in continuing to offer a great place to work in the gaming industry.

Here's what our CEO, Shaun Rutland had to say about our new way of working:

The trial taught us a great deal about making the most of the time we have, and how to pin down what Hutch needs to build on what we do well. A key learning from the trial is that productivity should not be valued by time spent on tasks, instead we needed to ensure that we were focused on outputs. The way we work and how we spend our time day to day has improved as a result, helped by our Hutchies feeling refreshed after a three day weekend. There are challenges we will still need to resolve and better ways of working to be tested, but we’re excited to put this into practice in the new year.

The four day working week will be added as a rolling 12 month policy for all our staff (to be reviewed annually). We'll also be making some adjustments to ensure its success long term. These adjustments include bi-monthly team days that will give us opportunities to focus on business and social activities, plus working on Fridays during bank holiday weeks.

We're excited to be embracing this new way of working and are looking forward to sharing more about our experience with the wider community. Check out our Linkedin page for updates and look out for news from the trial as a whole from 4 Day Week Global in February 2023.

Find out more about the 4 Day Week trial here: https://www.4dayweek.com/