Display | Increase efficiency: is the 4-day week the key to more success?

Is it possible to work more efficiently with a four-day week? This is exactly the question the affiliate marketing company Awin asked itself. As part of its transformation process, the company introduced the four-day week in a pilot phase.

Affiliate marketing giant Awin has experienced a fast one in 20 years of company history , continuous growth that also entailed significantly more complex projects. In order to continue to do justice to around 15,200 international advertising customers with over 211,000 active sales partners and not to lose the high implementation speed, the company faced an extensive transformation process. The focus is on achieving greater efficiency.

The transformation of the world of work will not work without new work models. In order to support this and at the same time offer its employees a certain work-life balance, Awin has decided to introduce a pilot phase for a four-day week. The employees work only 32 instead of 40 hours per week , on four instead of five days – and with full salary. The aim is to create a sustainable win-win situation for employers and employees: employees have one full day more free per week, relax and are more motivated and efficient on the remaining days. So far so good, but how can the process really be lived in everyday company life? The focus is on agile working methods and general process optimization in order to achieve the necessary increase in efficiency in the four-day week.

Agile working methods and general process optimization should ensure the necessary increase in efficiency in the four-day week. (Photo: Shutterstock / Kostiantyn Voitenko)

The problem here: Different tools initially prevented cross-departmental planning and process work. The global company therefore needed a more suitable, agile work management tool that allowed integration with existing systems . The teams should be able to work across departments and, above all, across projects. The choice fell on the work management tool Asana, which was already used as a tool in the company’s marketing. After a detailed evaluation of the tool landscape, the company-wide rollout took place in mid-2020 and the first practical test in Black Friday business. In order to increase the usage rate and to bring out the capabilities of Asana, Awin decided to select the German sales team as an early adopter and to handle the project management for Black Friday 2020 exclusively via Asana.

Affiliate marketing giant Awin relied on Asana for Black Friday business, thereby accelerating the company’s transformation at the same time. (Image: Asana / Awin)

After the successful use in Black Friday 2020 and the positive feedback, Asana also turned out to be a catalyst for transformation in the company. With the