happy 2 year FREI-YAY anniversary

At echd, every 3rd Friday of the month means: FREI-YAY!

A good corporate culture is the most important factor for long-term, consistent success and satisfaction. Our employees are the essence of all ideas, designs and data that leave our creative forge and therefore a positive environment, personal development potential and sufficient space for regeneration are a must for us as an employer.

As Managing Director and Partner, I therefore not only have to think about the next design concept, but also about how our team can continue to deliver exceptional ideas. Work-life balance and the four-day week have long been a topic on social media and during our restructuring process from khdesign to echd two years ago, this topic kept coming back to me.

Introducing a complete 4-day week from one day to the next? At first glance, that's quite a psychological and financial blow for a company. So why not start a little smaller and give it a chance? For example, with a day off every 3rd Friday of the month. So 12 free days for all of us. Hooray!

Our concerns:

• What will customers say if we are suddenly no longer available on Fridays?
  
• How much order volume will we lose by taking this step?
  
• Will we manage to complete all our projects in less time?

Our goals:

• To give our employees the opportunity to relax better and FINALLY get things done that would otherwise be left undone during the week.
  
• Make our employees happy and be happy about it too.
  
• To create an even more attractive workplace for our employees.
  
• Not higher, faster, further, but mindful, better, nicer!
  
• Being a pioneer and actively shaping the movement towards better working.

Our conclusion after 2 years of FREI-YAY:

An employment relationship is like a good relationship based on the fact that both parties trust each other and are happy to give. The joy of Free Friday is and remains great and it is very nice to see how well it is used and celebrated by all echdies. Free Friday is an investment in the health, performance and happiness of our employees and part of the gratitude we can show them as an employer.

One thing is clear - Fridays off are here to stay and we as an employer are not standing still. =)