Imagine having a three-day weekend, every weekend. For the around 50 employees at Chicago-based ad agency Authentic, it’s no fantasy.

The company adopted a four-day workweek in December, following about a five-month pilot program that concluded in May. It started the program to help improve retention, which, as of 2019, was 54.5%, according to founder and CEO Mike Nellis.

Four-day workweeks have been shown to have a positive impact on both retention and recruitment: 63% of candidates surveyed by Gartner in 2023 noted that a four-day workweek is the “top new and innovative benefit that would attract them to a job.” Additionally, employees whose employers offer a four-day workweek reported a 14% increase in productivity and a 17% increase in well-being, according to Gartner.

Nellis attributes Authentic’s 2023 retention rate of 90% to the flexibility it has offered employees.

Keep reading here.—AS

Discover Miss Excel’s secret hacks to unleash the full power of Microsoft Excel in this free Excel class on optimizing your spreadsheets with pivot tables and data analysis. The best news: If you can’t attend live, you’ll also get access to a 48-hour replay when you register.

Register today for this FREE live workshop and save hours each week.

The Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference wrapped up in Chicago this week. More than 26,000 HR professionals, vendors, and industry analysts attended SHRM24 in person. Of those, 2,200 attended virtually.

One perk of visiting the massive HR gathering in the flesh is exposure to the more than 175,000 square foot expo hall, where vendors lure in HR pros with games and raffles, candy and cookies, and custom swag—lots of custom swag. The expo hall offered attendees the opportunity to learn more about the latest products and services in the HR space.

SHRM 24’s expo featured nearly 700 exhibitors and sponsors, including notable names in the HR space like UKG, ADP, and Dayforce, as well as smaller vendors. Attendees explored vendors across a myriad of unique offerings: Meats by Linz for employee gift ideas and Human Touch massage chairs were among the more curious vendors.

Keep reading here.—AD