Embracing Change: The 4-Day Work Week

By Danny Pato, D&M Hair Design 3X AHIA Creative New Zealand Hairdresser of the Year

Change is the heartbeat of our industry. That’s what we do every day on the salon floor..

At D&M Hair Design, we’ve embraced change, shifting to a four-day work week. This change, born out of the pandemic and driven by a commitment to our team’s well-being, has transformed our approach to salon life and work-life balance.

Originally, D&M stuck to the usual Tuesday-to-Saturday salon working week, with Monday trainings. Like many salons, Saturdays were the busiest days. Saturdays are also when “normal life” is going on – things like weddings, birthdays, concerts, sports, social catch ups. It’s the day most of the team, including me, want to take leave, but feel guilty about doing so.

Then along came COVID. In Auckland, we had a few lockdowns where salons weren’t able to open. People got used to spending more time at home with their loved ones, their animals or just being in their own space. There were challenges, like not being able to work, loss of income, mental health, uncertainty ... we all remember it!

That first reopening was hectic; we were trading seven days per week, 12 hours per day, to fit everyone in. It wasn’t at all sustainable, but for those first few weeks, we all went for it. Surprisingly, clients were now able to come in any time that was available, partly because of mobile working. That got me thinking: what if we could change our operating hours to suit our team?

I came up with a bold proposal for the team: to close the salon every single Saturday, working four late nights, Tuesday to Friday. It would mean working a few hours less per week, but then we could all join “normal life” Saturdays with our friends and family. When consulted, the team loved the idea, so we bit the bullet.

We wrote a letter to our clients explaining that we were putting the well-being of our team first by giving them back their weekends, and got the front of house team onto rebooking. We were expecting to lose up to 10% of our client base, however, we only ended up losing two clients (and one soon came back).

The client feedback we didn’t expect was that this new schedule actually made it easier for them. Late nights during the week was a better option (e.g. with a partner handling childcare), leaving their weekends free too.

So, now our team have “normal lives”. Yuko, for example, has joined a baseball team. Being able to go to weddings with our partners, to gigs on Friday nights, and long-weekend holidays away has become a reality, aligning with the lessons we learned during the COVID era – the importance of well-being, loved-ones and personal time.

There have been so many other benefits by doing this, including:

• Reducing the opening hours down from 44 to 40 hours a week has meant that we no longer have any odd gaps in the books. We’re more productive with less downtime.

• We have more time and energy for our charity projects, photoshoots, editorials, shows and education work.

• We’ve found it easier to recruit: our job ad heading is “take your weekends back”. I’m very aware of the industrywide staff shortages in Australia and NZ, but we haven’t had any issues finding or keeping top talent. The new generation of professionals puts more value on work-life balance and that’s something we provide. Our long-standing team members (we have several over the 10 year mark) have also found this new way of work-life balance far more fulfilling.

• The team no longer has to deal with rushhour traffic. Now every night is late night, they can all drive straight home instead of competing with the rest of Auckland.

• Health, including mental health, is noticeably improved. Sick days are significantly less than what they used to be, now the team has better balance and burn-out is avoided.

• Our revenue has actually increased, fuelled by more energy and passion in the salon.

As an older member of the team, I’ve learned valuable lessons from the younger generations. Their insistence on a balanced lifestyle and a more humane workweek has not only shaped our salon but has also taught me the importance of slowing down and savouring life.

Our journey to a four-day workweek has been nothing short of transformational. It’s a tribute to the power of embracing change, prioritising well-being, and evolving with the times.

I’ve had a few other salon owners reach out and pick my brain about this, and several have followed this model and it’s successful for them too. If it’s something you want to think about for your salon, my advice would be to think about your location and your market. We’re in an upmarket central suburb, with mobile clients.

For some salons, closing another day instead of Saturday might work better. Some salons find it best to open six days but their staff work no more than four days. This sort of change might not work for every salon, but this was our journey. There was some fear about the unknown but we were brave and it’s paying off – the outcome was better than we’d dreamed.

In our dynamic industry, the only constant is change, and it’s up to us to shape it in a way that benefits everyone.

@dannypatohair @dandmhairdesign