We're proud to be four-day workweek pioneers: A Q&A with Nexton
Nexton is a recruiting company that aims to champion the best Latin American technical talent and connect them to purposeful start ups around the world. As well as being a Conscious Company, Nexton recently announced they were moving to a four-day workweek. I had the pleasure to talk with Diego Sternberg, founder of Nexton.
Alice: Can you share a bit about Nexton with me?
Diego: Nexton is a recruiting company that connects the best technical talent in Latin America with purposeful startups around the world. We are a bridge in this win-win process: we bring the talent the opportunity to work in a meaningful and challenging project and we help the client to hire the right team.
Why is being a Conscious Company important to Nexton?
We care deeply about our people, so creating an environment that allows for work-life balance is our top priority. That’s why we are committed to making Nexton’s workplace culture a strong one. Because we work 100% remotely, it is even more important that we emphasize the development of our culture.
We want our people to work smart, achieve their goals, feel part of an amazing mission, and achieve work-life balance, so they never have to sacrifice spending time with their families, their passions and hobbies, and mental health to achieve this. We believe a conscious culture will allow us to scale, grow and learn without getting burnt out in the process.
That totally makes sense, especially considering you recently moved to a four-day workweek, what inspired you to do this?
For us, it’s all about putting our team’s health and well-being first, which is why implementing the four-day workweek seemed like a great idea. We want our people to work smarter, not longer. We trust them to take ownership over their time management while keeping the standards of execution high.
How have employees been reacting to a four-day workweek?
The team is super excited about the four-day workweek and they are enjoying the extra day off. They feel more rested, energized, and inspired! We are still in the trial period, and adapting our work to a four-day workweek schedule is not easy. It forces us to ask tough questions and change the way we have always worked. But we all want it to be a permanent policy, and we are committed to making it happen.
Definitely the biggest challenge is being conscious about our time: by understanding the importance of time, team members will try to optimize their work as much as possible, so they can spend more time with family and friends!
We consider it key to keep learning to optimize time management, reducing meeting times -especially when being a distributed company-, being very organized, and prioritizing tasks.
Totally agree! With that in mind, what do you think the future of work is going to look like?
We believe it is going to be fully remote, so achieving a work-life balance is crucial. We truly believe that a four-day workweek will be a trend all over the world in a few years, and we are proud to be pioneers in this matter!
We also see a shift in people’s minds. Now people are looking for a higher quality of life, shifting to live in places with open space and nature, and this will have a huge impact on the future of work; because businesses will have to adapt and trust their teams to do their jobs and not measure them by the hours they spend in front of the screen but by the achievement of department and company goals.
Alice: What would your advice be to other companies thinking about the possibility of a four-day workweek?
Plan in advance how you are going to do the transition and think about ways in which you can train your team to be more effective when communicating and working. It is important to have that figured out before making the jump into the 4-day workweek model. It is scary, but with the right planning and the right incentives people become even more productive and team happiness should increase. Another crucial element is to trust your decision to join the four-day workweek movement and, more importantly, you need to have trust in your team!
Is there anything else you would like to add about Nexton, Conscious, or four-day workweek?
Our mission at Nexton is to change lives by empowering Latin American-based candidates and boosting the capabilities of the companies we connect them with. In short, we make rightful connections. We build bridges. We are part of the Conscious movement because we challenge the status quo, and we strongly believe in contributing to a Conscious Culture where humanity meets execution.
Interested in Nexton’s mission? Find out more about Nexton ->
