I’m proud to announce that today, Qwick is joining the four-day workweek movement. Our mission has always been to change the way people work, and our team works hard to bring prosperity, flexibility, and freedom to the hospitality industry. However, even with the people-first culture we’ve built at Qwick, we can be doing better ourselves. We also want to change the way that technology companies work.
That’s why we’re rolling out a four-day workweek to our nearly 200 employees. You might be thinking, “What’s the catch?” Well, there is none. We believe that in just 32 working hours per week our team will be more efficient and more creative in their work while achieving the same amount of productivity, if not more. After all, more hours do not equal better work, and work will always fill the time that you give it. This is just one of the many reasons we’ve decided to make the switch.
Why We’re Making The Change
To Attract the Best Talent
In the last year our team has grown 667%, and we’re not slowing down this rocket ship any time soon. In order to continue to provide our business partners and freelancers with the very best products and service around, we need to keep adding incredible talent to our team. We never want to be average and that also extends to our employee benefits; now including a four-day workweek.
Four-Day Workweek Aligns With Our Cultural Values
First and foremost, we are human. We encourage our team to live abundant lives and foster strong relationships far beyond the walls of the office. We all know how easy it is to let our lives get out of balance, yet understand just how important that balance is to our wellbeing. The health of our team matters and we hope that this change will improve both mental and physical health at Qwick.
We believe in hustling responsibly. We’re a rapidly growing tech startup and we sprint fast. The best athletes understand the importance of rest and recovery—we need to do the same. Burnout is real and we can’t sustain the growth we are experiencing without giving ourselves the time and space to rejuvenate. We’re excited to see what’s possible when we all show up to work on Mondays feeling truly rested and ready for the week.
We also see a four-day workweek as a way to further support our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at Qwick. Many of our employees are caregivers. They leave work at the end of the day to go home to a “second shift”. We hope that a four-day workweek can alleviate stress in the lives of our working parents and help offset the rising cost of childcare, as well as benefit those attending to other important relationships and responsibilities. That includes a responsibility to care for ourselves.
How We’re Making The Change
This is not the first innovative cultural practice that we’ve implemented at Qwick. Since the start we’ve offered employees unlimited paid time off, a salary for equity program without “golden handcuffs”, and we’re actually known for our lack of formal policies altogether. We hire adults and treat them as such, so there is no need for excessive rules and red tape.
As with any business decision, we have done extensive research into the four-day workweek experiments done by other notable companies. We’ve found many of them to be overwhelmingly successful. We plan to pilot the four-day workweek from April ‘22 through July ‘22, at which point we will implement the new schedule permanently or iterate based on our learnings. Our three main goals are increased productivity, creativity, and health and wellbeing among all employees. Over the next few months we’ll consistently track metrics including quality of responses by Qwick employees to freelancers and business partners, top-of-funnel freelancer and business partner growth, app store ratings, tech adoption, and employee net promoter scores based on the results of an employee wellness survey.
To prepare for this change we’ve become increasingly aware of how we are spending our time. From calendar audits and streamlining to automating processes, we’re finding ways to work smarter. The core days for most Qwick employees will be Monday through Thursday, however, we have a rotating schedule throughout the entire week and weekend in order to best support the hospitality industry we serve. Communication and support to our business partners and freelancers will not be affected by the change. In fact, the level of support will only continue to increase.
Leading The Future of Work
We believe that a four-day workweek will result in increased productivity and creativity, all while positively impacting the health and wellness of our team. We’re looking forward to sharing our learnings on this journey and continuing to bring freedom and flexibility to the hospitality and technology industries. We wouldn’t be the impactful and innovative company that we are without the team behind it all, and I am incredibly grateful and excited for what we are building together.
If you are interested in being a part of the future of work we are creating at Qwick, check out our open roles.
Posted by:
Jamie Baxter, Co-Founder + CEO
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