One Friday off out of three: flexibility born from collective thinking

Type of action: Work time reorganization and participatory consultation.
Target group: All full-time employees.
Duration: Reflections and working group in 2023 – Test phase from September to December 2024, then permanent implementation from January 2025.

Since 2022/2023, the association has set up temporary working groups allowing employees to propose and discuss topics related to quality of life at work.
One of these groups focused on working time, at a time when many companies were discussing the four-day workweek.

However, as an association, we could not offer non-worked hours, as is sometimes the case in companies that can financially compensate for reduced presence time.

Moreover, since most of our team are cross-border workers, compressing hours into four days or adopting a 9-days-out-of-10 rhythm would have led to excessively long and unrealistic workdays.

The group therefore devised a more suitable solution: working 14 days out of 15, by adding about 30 extra minutes of work per day to free up one Friday every three weeks. This option combined work-life balance with operational feasibility.

• Promote work-life balance without salary reduction.
• Strengthen employee engagement and motivation by giving them greater autonomy in organizing their work.
• Foster internal consultation andinclusion in HR decisions.

The working group:

• Studied several options and simulated different schedules.
• Presented the proposal to the team with concrete examples of organization.
• Organized a collective vote to validate the implementation of the system.

A test phase began in September 2024.
Following very positive feedback, Management and HR formalized the system in early 2025 with the help of a law firm to draft an internal agreement, signed by all employees (full-time and part-time).
The system is now in effect and re-evaluated annually. A review will take place in December 2025 to assess whether the team still supports the system or if adjustments are needed.

Quantitative: 100% of full-time employees adopted the system.
Qualitative: Strong team support, improved well-being and sense of recognition.
Long-term: A global evaluation is planned for the end of 2025 to measure effects on productivity, satisfaction, and team cohesion.