icon-search

Enter a search term to see suggested pages.

Close
What we do
Workplace Consultancy
icon-consultancy
Design & Build
icon-design
Workplace Furniture
icon-furniture
Workplace Technology
icon-technology
Our Story
Our People
Careers
Academy
Sustainability
icon-case-study-red
icon-view_1
icon-blog
icon-whitepaper
icon-video
icon-360
Claremont Claremont
Chat
Search
  • What we do
  • Our work
  • Our thinking
  • Destination Office
  • Our story
  • Contact us
  • What we do
    Sub Menu
    • Overview
    • Workplace Consultancy
    • Design & Build
    • Workplace Furniture
    • Workplace Technology
  • Our work
  • Our thinking
  • Destination Office
  • Our story
    Sub Menu
    • Overview
    • Our People
    • Careers
    • Academy
    • Sustainability
  • Contact us

Blog

Where do you stand on the four-day week?

21 February 2022 | by Nick Nolan

4
MIN

read-circle
Where do you stand on the four-day week?

Home → Our Thinking → Where do you stand on the four-day week?

The idea of the four-day week has attracted a lot of media attention.

With a handful of businesses already committing to it permanently and a 30-company strong pilot set to start soon – this reduced hour working model has been billed as the solution to the pandemic-induced ‘great resignation’.

post-line-1

Unsurprisingly, the  benefits of the four-day week are in the spotlight.  It gives employees a greater work life balance and makes them more rested after three days off, plus many like the extra sense of professional buzz and pace it creates. Studies have shown that employers benefit enormously too – with fewer sick days, reduced staff attrition and crucially greater profits, not to mention a potential USP in a bid to attract the brightest and best talent. For the country as a whole, the four-day week is heralded as the way to improve mental health, reduce unemployment, boost productivity, reduce our carbon output and strengthen local communities too.

But, even with all these compelling benefits, the four day week isn’t for everyone.  There are those who feel that trying to do five days’ work in four will put them under greater pressure and stress, not to mention that some businesses simply can’t move to this model easily, if at all.

Wherever you stand on the four day week – it’s clear that one of pandemic’s biggest legacies is that it’s changed what we want our shared experience of work to be.  It makes sense that against this backdrop, many employers are revisiting their office interior design. If people are working in different ways, at different times and sometimes from home as well as the office – the workplace must take on a new role.  We call this role the destination office – as when work can happen almost anywhere, these locations have to become places people actively seek out and want to visit.  We talk about it a lot (and you can read more here – internal web link) as these are the spaces we design and build for numerous big-brand businesses each year.

One of the founding principles of the destination office is the need for choice – as with choice comes empowerment. When you allow employees to choose how, when and where they work you unlock wider benefits. They feel trusted and in control. They are able to fit their professional and personal lives together more easily.  It often results in extra discretionary effort being applied to their work and it makes employees feel happier and more valued.  It also promotes greater inclusivity – giving those with different needs and preferences the ability to choose the right space for them and their task.  That means creating spaces that are suited to lively discussion, quiet reflection, team collaboration, tech-powered meetings, socialising, relaxing and more.

All of our recent projects can be described as destination offices, and they have been a celebration of agility and choice – especially  Flutter’s new global HQ in Dublin which we finished just a few weeks ago.  This was Claremont’s largest project to date and involved the design and build of a  destination office over six floors.  The office interior design concept embodied choice, and the finished office features a rich blend of activity-based work settings and large collaborative spaces, as well as an indoor football pitch, studio spaces, a mock-up shop, relaxation and gaming areas and an on-site café. You can read more about that here.

Wherever your business and your people stand on the four day week – what is clear is that employees want greater choice. Choice underpins agility and the idea of hybrid-working.  After almost two years of feeling like our freedoms have been compromised, people-orientated and progressive employers are quickly recognising that reinvigorated office interior design has the power to support and drive change.

We may not want, need or be expected to be in the office everyday – but the office does have a very clear role to play, particularly in the bid for greater productivity, efficiency, belonging and talent retention. It is a destination like no other and it must be fit for its exciting, new and ever-evolving purpose.

Author

Nick Nolan
Marketing Assistant

Related thinking

cs-line-9

Whitepaper

Embedding Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

Whitepaper

The Next Normal – Part 1

Case Study

Shoosmiths, London

home-line-4

OFFICE INTERIOR
DESIGN & BUILD

From Workplace Consultancy through design, to the build and beyond. Whether you use all or part of our capabilities, you’ll find we’re a safe pair of hands.

home-line-5
icon-plus

Workplace Consultancy

Helping you achieve the optimal combination of people, space and technology, enabling your organisation to realise its maximum potential in a FutureFlexible way.

icon-plus

Design & Build

Claremont’s comprehensive in-house capability takes care of it all, it’s an end-to-end solution that mitigates risk, accelerates timescales and controls costs.

icon-plus

Workplace Furniture

We believe furniture has a huge impact on the people using it. We aren't limited to a specific range of suppliers, so finding exactly the right products for you or even designing you something unique is at the heart of our approach.

icon-plus

Workplace Technology

Just the right tech fully integrated with your space gives you that all-important agile and collaborative environment.

What we do

Get in touch

home-line-10
logo-ig
logo-twitter
logo-linkedin
logo-pinterest

    Warrington Design Studio (HQ)
    • T: 0800 262 880
    • E: hello@claremontgi.com

    Claremont House
    The Breeze
    2 Kelvin Close
    Birchwood
    Warrington
    WA3 7PB

    Bristol Design Studio

    Origin Workspace
    40 Berkeley Square
    Bristol
    BS8 1HP

    Living Wage Logo

    © Claremont 2023

    Design and build by

    Future
    • Privacy Policy
    • Anti-Slavery Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this.
    Dismiss
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT