For the pilot, the Association’s staff will compress and reduce their working week to 32 hours, working Monday to Thursday, with Friday being a non-working day.

After a thorough investigation and joint working group meetings with staff and committee, the four-day week principle seemed to give a balance between providing excellent services to tenants and other customers while improving Yorkhill Housing Association’s offering as a modern, forward-thinking employer.

Tony Mallaghan, chief executive, said: “This is an exciting pilot. We hope the improved work/life balance for staff will bring greater efficiency in our work, and evidence suggests that our performance should not be affected, and in some cases be improved as our staff are happier in their working lives. We’ve recently implemented a new website with a customer portal, meaning even more of our services can be accessed 24 hours a day.”

While staff will no longer be working on a Friday the office will be open longer on the other days, meaning customers have greater access to services. Prior to the pilot the Association’s office was open 10am until 4pm, closing at lunchtime, and did not reopen on a Wednesday afternoon.

The phone opening hours had a different opening pattern. This was difficult to explain, and customers found it tough to remember. The new pattern is much simpler and increases the opening hours from 22.5 hours per week to 32 hours per week.

The pilot, starting in April 2026, will last for 12 months and will be carefully assessed to ensure performance and satisfaction remain high.

Grant Kennedy, deputy chief executive, added: “We’ve already received positive comments from our tenants – they like that our office will be open longer, and the opening hours are simpler to understand. We’re grateful to other RSLs for their advice which was incredibly useful for our own working group. We’re looking forward to seeing how this pilot works out.”