The typical five-day workweek is a thing of the past for Buffer, at least for now. The company has decided to implement a four-day workweek for the “foreseeable future.”
Last year, the company surveyed its employees to see how they are dealing with the ever-changing landscape of the pandemic and the anxiety and stress that came along with it. They soon learned employees didn’t always feel comfortable or like they could take time off.
Employees felt guilty for taking PTO while trying to meet deadlines. Juggling work and suddenly becoming a daycare worker and teacher for their children at the same time was stressful. So, Buffer looked for a solution to help give employees more time and flexibility to get adjusted to their new routines.
Four-Day Workweek Trials
In May, Buffer started the four-day workweek one-month trial to focus on teammates’ well-being. “This four-day workweek period is about well-being, mental health, and placing us as humans and our families first,” said Buffer CEO and co-founder Joel Gascoigne in a company blog post.
“It’s about being able to pick a good time to go and do the groceries, now that it’s a significantly larger task. It’s about parents having more time with kids now that they’re having to take on their education. This isn’t about us trying to get the same productivity in fewer days,” Gascoigne said.
Buffer’s one-month trial proved to be successful. Survey data from before and after the trial showed higher autonomy and lower stress levels. In addition, employee anecdotal stories showed an increase in worker happiness.
With positive results, Buffer turned the trial into a long-term pilot through the end of 2020. This time, the trial would focus on Buffer’s long-term success.
“In order to truly evaluate whether a four-day workweek can be a success long-term, we need to measure productivity as well as individual well-being,” wrote Director of People Courtney Seiter. “Teammate well-being was our end goal for May. Whether that continues, and equally importantly, whether it translates into customer and company results, will be an exciting hypothesis to test.”
Trial Results
Company Productivity
Buffer’s shorter workweek trials showed employees felt they had a better work-life balance without compromising work productivity. According to the company’s survey data, almost 34% of employees felt more productive, about 60% felt equally as productive, and only less than 7% of employees felt less productive.
However, just saying productivity is higher isn’t proof. To make sure the numbers added up, managers were asked about their team’s productivity. Engineering managers reported that a decrease in total coding days didn’t show a decrease in output. Instead, there was a significant output increase for product teams, and Infrastructure and Mobile saw their output double.
The Customer Advocacy team, however, did see a decline in output. Customer service is dependent on customer unpredictability so this makes sense. Still, the survey showed about 85% to 90% of employees felt as productive as they would have been in a five-day workweek. Customers just had to wait slightly longer to receive replies to their inquiries.
Employee Well-Being
With more time and control of their schedules, Buffer’s survey shows an increase in individual autonomy and decreased stress levels reported by employees. And, the general work happiness for the entire company has been consistent throughout 2020.
What’s in store for 2021?
Based on positive employee feedback and promising company results, Buffer decided it will continue the company-wide four-day workweek this year.
“The four-day work week resulted in sustained productivity levels and a better sense of work-life balance. These were the exact results we’d hoped to see, and they helped us challenge the notion that we need to work the typical ‘nine-to-five,’ five days a week,” wrote Team Engagement Manager Nicole Miller.
The four-day workweek will continue in 2021, but the company will also be implementing adjustments based on the pilot results.
For most teams, Fridays will be the default day off. For teams that aren’t project-based, their workweek will look slightly different. As an example, the Customer Advocacy team will follow a different schedule to avoid customer reply delays and ticket overflow. Each team member will still have a four-day workweek and need to meet their specific targets. They will just have a more flexible schedule.
Companies who follow this format understand that output expectations will be further defined by area and department level. Employees who aren’t meeting their performance objectives will have the option to choose a five-day workweek or might be asked to do so.
If needed, Fridays will also serve as an overflow workday to finish up a project. Of course, schedules will be evaluated quarterly to make sure productivity is continuing to thrive and employees are still satisfied.
But, Miller says Buffer is “establishing ambitious goals” that might “push the limits” of a four-day work week in 2021. With the world slowly starting to normalize, who knows when a four-day workweek might reach its conclusion.
“We aren’t sure that we’ll continue with the four-day workweeks forever, but for now, we’re going to stick with it as long as we are still able to hit our ambitious goals,” wrote Miller.
mariana
November 9, 2010 at 8:58 pm
The majority of our leads come from our website, but Trulia and Realtor.com do send traffic our way and we get about 1-3 leads a month directly from r.com.
Bruce Lemieux
November 9, 2010 at 10:37 pm
This survey would be more revealing if it included the major source of leads for most agents: past clients, sphere of influence, direct mail, FSBO, expireds, open houses + other ‘old school’ sources. I would be shocked if Trulia, R.com or Zillow made he top 5 for many full-time agents who make a living in real estate.
Marty Hunt
November 10, 2010 at 8:42 am
While I get far more leads from Zillow in quantity, they aren’t the best quality leads. I get fewer leads from Trulia but have a better conversion ratio from contact to contract. I spend three times the money on Realtor.com with amazingly poor results and without a doubt it is the worst of the bunch for ROI by miles and miles. Why am I still there? A one year contract to fulfill!
When I reallocate my considerable advertising budget the mix will change dramatically. I’m not sure WHY people going to Realtor.com aren’t getting to me as leads when I get literally tens of thousands of listing views according to the Realtor.com reports. THAT would be interesting to research…how many raw leads are generated by each of the third party aggregators (and make no mistake that Realtor.com IS a third party…). The only thing I can think of, my “AHA” thought about this, is that consumers feel less resistance to asking for help or contacting an agent on Zillow or Trulia than they do on a “Realtor site”.
Those surveys we’ve all seen many times that put Realtors at the bottom of the food chain in the consumer’s eyes might reflect why I get literally over 100 leads from Zillow and Trulia for every ONE lead from Realtor.com. Either the leads from my listings are getting cannibalized and sent to other agents who are buying zip codes, OR the “uniques” on Realtor.com are actually Realtors and customer of Realtors who aren’t paying MLS fees but use Realtor.com as a free MLS-like research tool, OR whether my ISP is blocking hundreds of leads from Realtor.com (because they certainly aren’t getting to me while the Zillow and Trulia leads continue to flow in)!
So the question should be “Of these online sources, where do you get the leads that have actually converted int listings, showings, closed sales and commision checks?” I’ve always said you can’t take a “hit” to lunch…we need to generate leads that are looking for a real estate agent and have an interest in buying or selling real estate. So…how many leads have turned into appointments, how many are active buyers and sellers in your pipeline today from each source, and how many leads from each source have turned into closed sales? I’ll pay for leads that convert to buyers and sellers. I think if you took the Realtors, ex-Realtors, wannabee Realtors, appraisers and our families and friends out of the unique count the nubers would change. Of course it would be just as interesting to know how many Realtors, appraisers, banks, insurance agents, etc. visit Zillow each month to get a “Zestimate” and have NO interest in buying or selling real estate…they just want the data, accurate or terribly inaccurate and incomplete, they want data but it sure helps the numbers if you’re counting uniques.
Bruce Lemieux
November 10, 2010 at 8:53 am
Marty – I’m in the same boat with R.com. I simply don’t get any buyers from enhanced listings – and I do a lot to make my listings stand-out there. If they are getting so many views, then why aren’t buyer leads coming in? It doesn’t make sense – something doesn’t add up.
I pay to enhance listings only as a service to my sellers. I hope that buyers are calling their agent when they see my listings there.