Client-side marketers on 4-day work weeks: Efficiency tracking paramount

Earlier last week, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to agency heads on the possibility of a four-day work week as discussed during parliament. While most were open to the idea in theory, a blanket application being rolled out could be difficult to attain. Moreover, it is worth noting that a monumental shift to a four-day work week would require all parties involved - from government bodies to clients to make the shift, said interviewees in the previous article.

Meanwhile, minister of state for Manpower, Gan Siow Huang, shared during parliament that employers and employees in Singapore are strongly encouraged to be open to flexible work arrangements and adopt a flexible mindset. The minister was responding to a query on whether the government is considering the idea and Gan shared that the results to date have been mixed, given key concerns were raised around impact of productivity, business costs, and employee well-being.

Client-side marketers MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to were largely in agreement that a four-day work week is possible, given expectations have changed as the pandemic forced people to realign what constitutes as work-life balance. Cheryl Lim (pictured centre), head of marketing at OTT content platform Viu said that flexible or remote working arrangement is now expected. While four-day work weeks bring definite merits to employee well-being, balance, and productivity, in a marketing setting where great work needs to be agile and fluid, “marketers may need to consider alternate shift pattern rather than a “one-size-fits-all” standard arrangement for all”.

For example, a scheduled roster might need to be created where some members work Monday to Thursday, while others work Tuesday to Friday. This way, work continues throughout the week and we are not causing more tension and stress internally with a shorter turnaround time,” she said.

“Gone are the days that we monitor staffer via a time punch card. In today’s agile workplace environment especially in tech companies, flexible and dynamic working arrangement can help drive passion and productivity,” said Kelvin Tan (pictured right), CMO of Trust Bank.

He added that a four-day work week in theory is somehow already in practice for a lot of organisations. For example, employees can choose either in-office or at-home workplace options, dynamic work time slots to suit one’s commitments in the day coupled with project management by agile innovation fundamentals.

“These are already ways to balance work-life productivity within a set parameter as long as leaders and their team members agree on a set of annual KPI deliverables and implement reasonable quarterly-monthly-weekly sprints to achieve those deliverables,” he said.

Personalised plan for each team 

Delbert Ty (pictured left), CMO of Coffee Meets Bagel, shared that when the company decided to go down the route of a four-day work week, a lot of time was spent on ensuring each manager and their team created a personalised charter. For Ty's team specifically, they cut down 50% of their meetings and committed to Asana, a project management tool to track and document all tasks to know if a project is ahead or behind with 100% visibility.

Ty said:

It’s about ownership and being smart about how we work by challenging norms and not letting work just expand to fill the time allocated to it.

“I think the four-day work week is the future of working. Full stop. We think of the five days as an almost fundamental law of nature having only known that our entire lives,” he shared. He added that knowledge-based work, such as marketing, suited to this new paradigm. 

“Think of what marketers fundamentally do – strategy and execution. Strategy is all about making decisions. You can take one month to make a decision, or you can take a second. If we’re smart with how we do this then there’s a lot of efficiencies that we can find there while still meeting a sufficient level of due diligence,” he added.

Three actions to be taken to make the four-day work week work 

Tan said there are three aspects that need to be done for the flexible arrangement to work. First, to track progress and monitor a project’s progress, so they can be completed within a certain timeline.

Second, decision making mechanisms that leaders can utilise to manage the team’s workload.

Third, to utilise an insight tool which will enable the team to figure out quickly which areas teams are lacking in and which ones they need to power through. If these aspects are implemented, it will help with quick thinking which will in turn make a four-day work week a reality.

Tan added that as long as leaders and their team members agree on a set of annual KPI deliverables and implement reasonable quarterly-monthly-weekly sprints to achieve those deliverables, it won't matter how many days are there in the work week. 

Adding on, Lim said, clear objectives, brief, direction, roles and responsibilities, trust, initiative, and teamwork are paramount. “We need to have clear communication and structure to ensure business continuity that allows for seamless continuation towards the work goal,” she said. Marketers, looking to adopt such a structure need to plan ahead and be clear on performance expectations.

“Ultimately, respecting boundaries and flexibility are pillars that are essential to considering this workplace of the future,” she shared.

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