Jan de Jong announced the news on his LinkedIn profile yesterday.
“Webpower Adria just gave all of its employees a raise of 20%. No, not in money, but in free time. We are introducing a 4 day work week – for the same salary! ??
In addition to that – whether my colleagues will be working from home or from the office will be entirely their own decision. ??
We are all individuals, with different preferences. If we can do our work from anywhere, then who are we to say it needs to be done from the office. ?
I strongly believe in the powerful words of sir Richard Branson: “If you look after your staff, they will look after your customers.”
Our team was super thrilled to hear we are starting our 4 day work week as of September.
Their next task is to agree among each other who is taking off on which day – because the show must go on. We will, of course, remain available to our dear clients 5 days a week.?
Introducing a 4 day work week aims to reduce stress and increase productivity – as many researches have shown would be the result.
Personally, I don’t know any Croatian company that offers this – so we at Webpower Adria are proud to be among the first companies in #Croatia ?? to introduce the 4 day work week.
Wouldn’t you like to work 4 days a week for the same salary?”
The Webpower CEO told Index.hr that his company has 9 employees, who mostly work from home. One employee works from Osijek, and another is in Rijeka.
“I specifically work from Split, while the rest of my team works from Zagreb. The average employee is 28 years old,” he said.
When asked how he came up with the idea, he said that he was encouraged to do so by other countries.
“In countries like Iceland, they have conducted several experiments in recent years testing a four-day workweek, and according to these results, working 4 days a week would reduce stress and increase productivity. Also, it is widespread in the Netherlands to work less than 5 days. They love it,” De Jong told Index, adding that he expects greater satisfaction from his employees, which should result in satisfied customers.
Index asked how his employees reacted when he told them the news.
“Oh, well, they were very excited when we told them that. They smiled with so much with happiness, and some even cried from happiness,” he said.
As the owner, would Jan also work 4 days a week?
“For me as an entrepreneur, it works a little differently. Webpower Adria is not the only company I work for. Last year, I became a co-founder of CROP to build high-tech greenhouses for growing tomatoes in Croatia. I am also a co-founder of Digital Nomads Croatia, where our mission is to unite and support digital nomads coming to Croatia. None of these businesses or activities require my involvement 40 hours a week, but when it all adds up, I end up working five days a week,” De Jong told Index.
When asked what he expects from a four-day workweek, he said this is a novelty, just as work from home was last year with the pandemic.
“I believe that once we show that working 4 days a week makes employees happy, that they are under less stress, that they are also more productive, I believe that then more and more companies will follow suit,” he added.
He added that he started thinking about making this decision before the summer.
“Before making a decision, we researched how busy our employees are at the moment, to see if a four-day workweek would have a negative impact on how we work. We concluded that we could really introduce a four-day workweek, and we are very excited about this new chapter for our company,” De Jong said.
Would the working hours be extended due to the four-day workweek?
“We stay to work 8 hours a day, but if it takes a few more hours, I believe it will be better for employees than working five days a week,” De Jong pointed out.
He also said that he expanded his team with two more colleagues last year.
“We did a great job with the #BuyCroatia campaign. For every 25 companies that would switch from services like MailChimp, or other foreign service providers, Webpower Adria would hire 1 full-time employee in Croatia. This campaign resulted in 50 new clients, which allowed us to hire two more employees,” he said.
He believes that in the future, many companies could opt for a four-day workweek.
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