The Business of Benefits: ‘Recharge Fridays’ at Staffbase

Here’s this week’s edition of our Business of Benefits series, where we spotlight benefits that are driving value for HR leaders, digging into their design and ROI.

If you’re interested in talking about a workplace benefit you love for an upcoming edition, click here to get in touch. You can also reach out directly to HR Brew’s total rewards reporter, Courtney Vinopal: [email protected]

Nearly every employee at Staffbase, an employee experience platform based in Chemnitz, Germany, is out of office each Friday in August.

The company permanently adopted “Recharge Fridays” after a successful pilot in 2021. While some workers in essential roles like customer care and sales remain on call, the rest of the 600-person workforce—which is located not only in Germany, but also the US, UK, and Japan—can turn off their notifications.

Tina Böhringer, global director of rewards and PX operations, told us more about the perk.

Explain the business case for this benefit.

There are many papers, data saying, if you have time to recharge your off work, it increases your productivity, creative thinking.

It is a heavy investment for everyone…but I think it’s really worth it. We see a connection between top talent, top performers, and how they make usage of their vacation accruals. It is really obvious that this helps with productivity.

We categorize these as “internal public holidays” rather than traditional vacation days. The true value lies in the synchronized nature of the benefit, because the majority of the company is offline simultaneously, internal communication slows down naturally. This allows for a much deeper level of relaxation compared to individual time off, as there is no “catch-up” work waiting in the inbox or in slack. For our essential services, like customer care and sales, we maintain flexibility through a rotation system that ensures they receive their recharge time at a later date.

What level of investment does this benefit represent for your organization?

This benefit is structured with no salary deductions, making it a pure investment in our employees. We didn’t find it necessary to increase headcount to bridge the gap. Instead, we empowered our teams to refine their priorities. By focusing on high-impact tasks from Monday to Thursday, we’ve found that our teams maintain their high performance levels while enjoying a significantly better work-life harmony.

How are you measuring the ROI of this benefit?

The ROI of Recharge Fridays is visible in our high levels of employee engagement and our strength in the talent market.

We’ve seen a fascinating shift in how work is approached. Knowing that Fridays in August are dedicated to recharging, teams naturally become more intentional with their time earlier in the week. This focus on efficiency allows us to maintain our ambitious output while providing more space for mental recovery.

This initiative has become a hallmark of our company culture. In our recruitment processes, candidates consistently highlight Recharge Fridays as a key differentiator. It signals to potential talent that we are a results-oriented organization that truly trusts and respects its employees’ time.

Our internal Peakon surveys show a distinct positive shift in sentiment leading up to and during August. The “social wall” within our company is filled with team members sharing how they use their time—whether for outdoor adventures or family—which fosters a vibrant, connected culture. This morale boost creates a “momentum effect” that carries through into our most productive quarters of the year.