After a successful 4 Day Week trial for 6 months last year, we're now officially a 4 Day Week company! We’re excited to embrace this new way of working permanently and also to share our experience with others. Our greater ambition has always been to motivate the industry to change for the better. This month, our Head of Analytics, Anna is sharing her 4 Day Week story and how her team have adapted to the shorter week (and the longer weekend!)

What’s your role?

I am a Head of Analytics here at Hutch. I directly manage five analysts: one senior analyst, two analysts and two junior analysts. We also have a marketing analyst and a revenue analyst on the team. Analysts at Hutch are integrated into the game teams, which means every analyst works across at least two teams: analytics & the assigned game team. This may result in slightly more meetings, but it's very efficient and helps data culture in the company flourish :)

How long have you been at Hutch?

I've been at Hutch for 4 and a half years - my 5 year Hutch-a-versary is coming up in June!

THE 4 DAY WEEK

What’s been the biggest challenge for your team?

In our case it was meetings. We had to adjust our meeting schedules, making sure that we allocate time for deep focused work. The challenging bit is to make sure to keep our respective teams up to date with what we are up to, and make sure the findings are documented and communicated - we have a bit less time for this than before. But we adjusted, adapted and overcame - I believe that now we are managing to handle everything really well.

What’s been the biggest change to your working week?

Personally, I started planning my week even more vigorously than before. For example, now I tend to actively block time in my calendar for certain tasks, look over my week on Monday and assess the time I have. Basically, trying to make the most of these 4 days in the most efficient way possible.

What are your top 3 productivity hacks?

Good question 🙂

• Blocking time in your calendar for tasks. Seriously, do it! Doubles down as a reminder for this particular task and helps with scheduling

• Reserve time for breaks - they are super important

• Don’t be afraid to switch notifications off on Slack if you need to. If it is something urgent - people will use the “send notification anyway” feature.

Were there any unexpected outcomes / experiences?

I think I realised how much one can actually do in 4 days. It's insane! :) For example, I thought a certain task would usually take me around 2 hours. But with the 4 Day Week, I might not have those 2 hours to complete the task; instead, I have only 1 hour. The trick is to just start on this task and commit to finishing it - and it usually works, an hour ends up being enough!

THE LONG WEEKEND

How do you use your extra day?

I go to the gym, deal with life admin, clean, go shopping, get my hair done during non-peak hours - it's amazing to be able to have that one extra day! It also felt great not to have to take a Friday off when I want to go travelling for a long weekend :)

And I am a part-time model, so I do some shoots on Fridays as well, when possible.

What impact has the extra day off had on you and your team?

I think everyone appreciates a 3-day weekend :) But also everyone understands the challenges that come with having only 4 working days. So we are very conscious of each other’s time and do our best to be as efficient as possible, paying a lot of attention to communication, planning and documentation.

How do you find your team tend to use their extra day?

Depends on the team member :) We relax, do sports, hobbies, chores, go travelling - it's still a weekend, but luckily a longer one.

How do you ensure people don’t end up working on the Friday?

We do so by trying to be as efficient and realistic as possible with our planning. Analysts usually work in game teams’ sprints, so their work is planned for 3 weeks in advance. If an analysts realises that they need more time to complete a task, they need to inform me and the team, and then we can adjust the priorities together, so that they don’t do overtime. 

TOP TIPS

What advice do you have for other companies thinking of trying out a 4 Day Week? 

Do it, and make sure you prepare for it in advance and measure your productivity. I know I mentioned meetings & planning already, but schedule adjustments need to be implemented before the 4 Day Week trial. Also, it's important to agree what would be the criteria for success of the trial. For this, it is vital to agree on the productivity measurement methodology. And, last but definitely not least, make sure that people are committed to trying the 4 Day Week out :)

Any specific advice for those working in data analysis?

Dear data people trying out 4DWW, plan your days and weeks. Block the time for tasks in your calendar. Start on tasks that you think will take you longer time than what you have - you’ll be surprised. And, agree on productivity measurement and align methodologies across the teams before the 4 Day Week trial.

Find out more the 4 Day Week and the results of the recent UK pilot survey including us and 60 other companies: https://www.4dayweek.com/

Interested in working at Hutch? Check out our current vacancies here: https://www.hutch.io/careers/