Hutch, the renowned automotive mobile game developer, has confirmed that a four-day working week will continue beyond the initial pilot period, officially becoming the latest employee benefit for the team.

In June 2022, Hutch began its trial in partnership with 4 Day Week Global, introduced across the studio’s offices and 150+ strong workforce in London, Dundee and Nova Scotia. The implementation of the policy saw productivity remain stable. Hutch also saw lower turnover of staff and higher job offer acceptance rates during the trial. As a winner of the gamesindustry.biz Best Place to Work award for the last 3 years, the wellbeing of staff was paramount to Hutch when taking part in the trial and in continuing to offer a great place to work in the gaming industry.

Testing the impact of the shorter week on productivity, team wellbeing and more, Hutch worked closely with experts to support their staff on how to make the most of a four-day week. Following the success of the trial, Hutch will be introducing a four-day working week as a rolling 12-month policy for all its staff, to be reviewed annually.

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Hutch joined 4 Day Week Global’s official trial alongside 70 other companies taking part to show the value of the change to working practices. Within the trial, Hutch provided valuable data to researchers from Boston College and Oxford University, to build a definitive case for a 4-day week, set to be released in February 2023.

The business learnt a lot during the trial and adjusted as needed. This is an approach that will continue and with the four-day working week becoming an official Hutch policy, there will be adjustments to the existing programme in order to support its success longer term. These adjustments include bi-monthly team days allowing the opportunity to focus on business and social activities and working on Fridays during the weeks in which a bank holiday falls. Elements such as pro-rated holiday, a 2 hour “no meeting” slot and dedicated quiet zone created within the office will remain. An additional day of annual leave has also been awarded to staff in order to reflect the team days. With the offices set to close over the festive period, the first day of the continued four-day week programme will effectively commence on Tuesday 3rd January.

Shaun Rutland, CEO of Hutch, said: “The trial taught us a great deal about making the most of the time we have, and how to pin down what Hutch needs to build on what we do well. A key learning from the trial is that productivity should not be valued by time spent on tasks, instead we needed to ensure that we were focused on outputs. The way we work and how we spend our time day to day has improved as a result, helped by our Hutchies feeling refreshed after a three-day weekend. There are challenges we will still need to resolve and better ways of working to be tested, but we’re excited to put this into practice in the new year.”