Evolution Money will take part in a four-day working week trial in partnership with the government and a range of other international bodies.
The second-charge lending specialist says staff in its two biggest customer-facing departments – its mortgage adviser and collections department team – will work for four days a week with no impact on pay or holiday entitlement, and with a commitment to maintaining productivity over the next six months.
Staff will receive a different day off each week, decided by rota, with the firm stressing “that it will be business as usual across all departments”.
The lender says it will regularly review the performance of the pilot, “with a focus on service levels and a continuation of key performance indicators being hit.”
It adds it will formally review the trial at three months, and if deemed successful, it will add its case management team to the final three months of the pilot.
At the end of the trial towards the end of the year, the business will then “weigh up the introduction of the four-day working week across the entire business”.
The four-day week trial is part of a series of pilot schemes that began last month taking place across the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and involving researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College, Oxford University and UK think tank Autonomy.
Autonomy says: “Adopting a four-day week is a business improvement strategy centred on working smarter rather than longer, and investing in the wellbeing of the most important asset to any business – your people.”
Evolution Money chief executive Steve Brilus adds: “This is phase one of the trial, with our two largest customer-facing departments taking part, and we aim to quantify and evaluate its success – or otherwise – at the three and six-month point to ascertain whether we include more departments and whether we broaden this out to the whole business.
“Our priorities remain focused on continuing to deliver excellent consumer outcomes and support to our extensive introducer network, and this will be front of mind at all points during this trial.
“This initiative supports our vision to be an employer of choice, which when combined with our wider purpose and focus on environmental, social and governance issues, will help us to deliver a high-quality and ethical business that is attractive to both employees and all those who work with us.”
