Page plan · 10 pages

Written for: Partners and the operating board of a generic professional firm

1. 1

   Nine-day fortnight: the question and our recommendation

   • The question: should we move to nine working days per fortnight with the same pay?
   • Our recommendation is a staged, time-limited trial, not a firm-wide switch.
   • The trial protects client service and has clear stop rules.
   • We ask the partners for a decision on the trial's scope today.
2. 2

   Where the firm stands and what has changed

   • Describe the firm today: mid-size, project-driven, billing by the hour and by the milestone.
   • Competition for engineers and retention pressure are the main drivers of this discussion.
   • Hybrid working has already changed how teams coordinate and when clients expect contact.
   • Other employers now advertise shorter weeks, so the market baseline is shifting.
3. 3

   What decides whether a shorter fortnight works

   • Output must be measured by deliverables and client outcomes, not hours in the office.
   • Client coverage on the off day needs a rota so responsiveness holds.
   • Team-level design matters: a shared off day suits some teams, a staggered one suits others.
   • Leadership commitment and clear metrics decide whether the change survives past the novelty.
4. 4

   Evidence from a UK council's reduced-hours trial

   • A UK district council trialed a four-day week and tracked 24 performance indicators.
   • 11 indicators performed better during the trial.
   • 11 showed no significant difference.
   • 2 were exceptions: rent collection and re-letting homes.
   • So 22 of 24 indicators held or improved, but the exceptions show where to watch.

   Pie chart: 24 performance indicators in a UK district council's four-day-week trial. Source: Independent report analyses Council's four-day week trial (news release, 8 July 2024; FOI disclosure) · checked 2026-10-10

5. 5

   Do the gains last beyond the first year?

   • First-year results can reflect novelty and extra effort, so we should not assume they persist.
   • We would track the same indicators at 6, 12 and 18 months (illustrative checkpoints).
   • Watch for fatigue, compressed workloads and quiet drift back to longer hours.
   • Evidence beyond one year is thinner, so our trial should generate its own data.
6. 6

   How far public-sector trials transfer to an engineering firm

   • The council trial is public-sector, with different incentives from a fee-earning firm.
   • Engineering work has fixed client deadlines and site or regulator dependencies.
   • Billable utilization is a metric the council does not face in the same way.
   • We should borrow the trial method, not assume the same results.
7. 7

   Our recommendation to the partners

   • We recommend a staged trial of a nine-day fortnight in selected teams.
   • Pay stays unchanged and the trial has a fixed end date for review.
   • Success is judged on client service, quality, utilization, and staff retention.
   • The partners decide the pilot scope and the stop criteria.
8. 8

   Roadmap for a staged trial

   • Phase one: baseline measurement and team selection, about one quarter (illustrative).
   • Phase two: run the pilot in two or three teams with monthly reviews.
   • Phase three: board review of results against agreed thresholds.
   • Phase four: extend, adjust or end the trial based on the evidence.
9. 9

   Risks to client service and how to manage them

   • Main risk: slower responses to clients on the off day.
   • Mitigation: a coverage rota and a clear escalation contact for each project.
   • Risk: deadline slippage on fixed-date deliverables, managed through planning buffers.
   • Risk: uneven fairness across teams, handled by transparent selection and review.
   • Any breach of service thresholds triggers a pause.
10. 10

    Appendix: evidence ledger of trials and studies

    • The ledger lists each trial or study with its sector, size, duration and result.
    • Each entry records its source and the date we accessed it.
    • The council trial is included with its 24-indicator result.
    • We flag weaker evidence, such as self-reported results, so readers can weigh it.