4-day workweeks at indie agencies—inside successes and challenges

After going through a period of trial and error, smaller ad agencies are now reaping the benefits of the four-day workweek. Tux Creative House has seen its turnover rate fall from 27% to 8% since implementing a four-day workweek in June 2022. The Los Angeles-based agency has reduced turnover costs and stronger productivity, executives said. Like Tux, many indie shops that have adopted a four-day week are experiencing strong retention rates. They’re also seeing greater interest from Gen Z and more focused attention from staffers motivated to complete their work faster and more efficiently. And then there are the less tangible benefits. Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards Join us July 23 & 24 in Boston Learn more here “It’s been successful all over,” said Tux CEO Dominic Tremblay, noting that employees, especially parents, are grateful for the time to “recharge” and pursue healthy hobbies. “Tons of employees are starting tennis class and doing yoga.” New players are trying a shorter schedule out, too. Magic Camp, which launched in March, is adopting a four-day workweek in a bid to help make the advertising industry “attractive to stay and grow” in, said Holly Willis, the Chicago shop’s CEO. “When you look at Gen Z … they’re not attracted by the cool, sexy perks nearly as much as they are by fundamental work and life priorities,” Willis said. “They want the ability to work super hard and lean in, but they also want the ability to shut off and decompress.” Also read: New ad agencies are opening rapidly It’s a good time to be experimenting with flexible models. Nearly one-third (30%) of large U.S. organizations are exploring new work schedule shifts such as four-day or four-and-a-half-day workweeks, according to KPMG’s 2024 U.S. CEO Outlook Pulse Survey. Why small agencies are leading the charge Several executives at indie agencies told Ad Age they can implement a four-day workweek by adopting a value-based compensation model based on deliverables or value, rather than the time-based compensation model larger holding companies and independent networks still typically use. For Tux, this concept is not only imperative, but also logical. “An hour of work doesn’t mean an hour of output,” said Tremblay. “You can have a great idea in two hours. You can have a shitty idea in four days.” Some agencies are putting their own spins on models, too. RocketAir, which doesn’t work on Fridays, has a billing model focused around what it calls “orbits,” which are essentially two-week-long sprints where the design and strategy shop determines deliverables. “We give ourselves room ... to figure out what the deliverables should be and to uncover that on an ongoing basis, while also not selling our time,” said Taylor Rosenbauer, CEO of RocketAir. “And by not selling our time, we’re getting our clients away from thinking about buying our time. Once you do that, suddenly clients are likely to care less about whether you’re working four days a week or five days a week.” Pricing around performance is simpler for smaller agencies because many work on projects, which are easier to tie deliverables to than longer, “multi-dimensional” agency of record assignments, said Peter Grossman, U.S. regional lead for consultancy Flock Associates. “If the [bigger agencies] were to accept and publicly acknowledge a move to a four-day workweek, they would have to significantly reduce the number of hours they could charge to clients,” said Grossman. “That would have a tremendous knock-on effect on their revenues.” Unless clients start making changes en masse, it will be difficult for larger agencies to make four-day workweeks a reality, Grossman said. “Marketing and communications is still a service business, [so] I think it's quite difficult for agencies to take the first step in this direction.” Employees’ paychecks remained the same for four-day workweeks as they did for a normal workweek, according to executives interviewed for this story. Early learnings Pilot programs, which many shops run for months before officially making a change, can help identify potential hurdles in four-day workweeks. But flexible workweeks require consistent experimentation to be successful, according to several executives. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs When New York marketing agency The Thomas Collective implemented a shortened schedule during the summer in 2022, it didn’t consider the impact federal holidays such as Memorial Day and Independence Day would have on employees’ workloads. “The days we were in the office were so crowded with meetings that it caused stress,” said Pamela Thomas, president of TTC. The agency amended its policy in 2023, requiring employees to work on Fridays during weeks that have a federal or observed holiday. Fewer hours in the week means that every minute is essential, too. Tux has given employees what it calls a “Joker Card,” which staffers can use to excuse themselves from a meeting in the first five minutes if they feel “they’re wasting their time,” said Tremblay. RocketAir is investing in tools such as Loom, an online screen recording tool that helps employees be “more efficient” with their time, according to Rosenbauer. But there are some stretches where a four-day workweek simply isn’t feasible. For Authentic, a Chicago digital marketing agency that works with several Democratic campaigns and nonprofits, that would be November, when general U.S. elections including senate elections, are held. While working with its union to develop a plan for the four-day workweek, Authentic negotiated “blackout periods,” one of which is during November, according to CEO and founder Mike Nellis. Read about Ad Age’s 2024 Leading Women here “A good chunk of our stuff will go to five days for, like, maybe a month because we need that time back,” Nellis said, adding the agency will give those hours back afterward. Authentic’s model is working well. The agency’s retention rate rose to 90% in 2023, up from around 55% in “the past couple years,” Nellis said, and clients are backing the change. Brad Elkins, campaign manager for Senate hopeful and California Rep. Adam Schiff, said in a statement that while he was “initially skeptical about Authentic‘s new four-day workweek and its potential impact on our campaign,” the agency has continued to deliver "exceptional" results in digital fundraising and exceeded efficiency expectations. “Authentic achieves more in four days than most firms do in five or seven,” Elkins added. Working with clients Some brands are benefiting from agencies’ shorter schedules. Via’s four-day workweek, established in October, has helped clients address a “culture of urgency” and better prioritize tasks, according to Leeann Leahy, CEO of the Portland, Maine-based agency. “If we have a meeting request for Friday, we will ask our clients, ‘Is this urgent, or would you like a choice of doing it Thursday or Monday?' I would say nine times out of 10, clients say, ‘Actually, it can wait until Monday,’” Leahy said. Via’s net promoter score increased to the “mid-to-high 80s” after it wrapped its pilot program, she added. Every agency that Ad Age spoke with said someone is always available to address clients’ emergencies on days off if necessary—but that isn’t always easy for new employees to grasp, as some come in with the view that Fridays are “sacrosanct,” Leahy said. Ultimately, having to pick up the phone for a few hours while not technically working isn’t much different from standard agency practice. “When a client has an urgent request, of course, we are always available to them. But that was the case when we were five days a week,” said Leahy. “If they had an urgent request on Saturday, we would help them. We’re partners.”

4-day workweeks at indie agencies—inside successes and challenges

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