The four day week and 360° reviews: 2 HR decisions that stick

Why we are telling you this

The S in ESG is usually the blurriest part. A tonne of CO2 can be measured. Real engagement, far less so.

So the subject tends to stall at the level of good intentions. Yet EcoVadis, B Corp and the VSME (the EU's simplified sustainability reporting standard for smaller companies), all ask for the opposite: written practices, concrete actions, and indicators tracked over time.

So we took two decisions. We have been measuring them ever since. And we are showing you the figures.

1. The four day week, two years on

What does it actually mean here? The team works Monday to Thursday. On Friday, nobody works.

To be clear, this is not a 4/5 contract. A 4/5 is part time work: you work less and you earn less. Here, salaries stay whole and contracts stay full time. What changes is how the work is organised, not the payslip.

In Belgium, the legal framework has existed since the law of 3 October 2022, better known as the Labour Deal. Several formulas sit side by side, depending on whether you compress the same hours into four days or genuinely reduce working time. Either way, it has to be prepared properly: the arrangement goes into the work rules and it relies on a clear agreement about what is expected from each person.

Our four indicators

We have tracked four results from the start. Each one has a specific data source, because a figure without a method is not worth much.

• 92.2% team satisfaction in 2026, measured through an annual survey.

• +20% productivity, assessed every month using department specific KPIs tracked in Monday and Capterra.

• 90% retention and 4% absenteeism, calculated from HR and attendance reports, based on staff movements and unplanned absences.

• +12% financial return, measured from our financial statements and quarterly revenue reports.

None of these figures can be credited to the four day week alone. What we can say is that no indicator has deteriorated, and several have moved sharply in the right direction.

Why it works

A free Friday forces you to make choices. Meetings get shorter. Status updates become written messages. Priorities become clearer, quite simply because there is no fifth day left to absorb the vagueness.

That is the real lesson. The four day week does not work because people work faster. It works because it forces you to cut whatever adds nothing.

That said, we found our own recipe, not a universal rule. Having the same day off for everyone suits us very well, but in another company a day that varies from person to person would probably make more sense, and that choice is never neutral. In Belgium, for instance, most schools finish at midday on Wednesday, so for a parent, a Wednesday is worth far more than a Friday. Then there are colleagues on part time contracts and roles that simply cannot move to four days: they need to gain something too, otherwise the measure divides people instead of bringing them together.

The four day week is as much an equity decision as an organisational one, and the two have to be worked on together.

2. The 360° review, inside a four stage cycle

The principle

In a traditional review, a person is assessed by their manager. In a 360° review, they also receive feedback from colleagues and from the teams they work with day to day. Hence the name: a full circle.

Here, that 360° is the first of four moments in the year. Because one big annual review is not enough: everyone tries to remember what happened eleven months earlier, and you end up discussing memories rather than facts.

Our four moments in the year

To keep a regular eye on performance, well being and professional development, we run four reviews a year. Each has its own purpose.

• March: the 360° review. We gather feedback from colleagues, to feed a positive dynamic of collaboration across the company.

• June: objectives review and mid year check in. We look at progress against the objectives set at the start of the year, and we also take time for how people are feeling.

• September: Head Of role review. This one focuses on how the role is being handled, how the associated responsibilities are progressing, and any adjustments needed.

• December: annual wrap up. An overall review of the year, revised objectives, and priorities structured for the year ahead.

Four moments, four different purposes. It is that split that avoids the end of year set piece.

Why we chose this format

Because it makes teamwork visible. Mutual support, the helping hand, the collective effort: everything a traditional review never sees.

Because it is fairer. Biases are smoothed out and no single opinion carries too much weight.

Because it surfaces things no tick box will ever capture. The useful information, the kind that actually matters.

Since we introduced this model, our internal response rate has been 100%. Everyone completes the feedback requested on their colleagues.

That may sound like a detail. It is not. A 360° running at a 60% response rate gives you a partial picture, and often the least useful one: it is the lukewarm feedback that goes missing. At 100%, you get the full picture, and this while taking part is voluntary.

What it has produced in a year

Communication between our Sales and Consulting teams has improved, in places where there were blind spots nobody had ever said out loud.

A "Head of" programme was born, allowing each person to specialise and grow their expertise in a specific area. It now has its own review slot, in September.

And for the management team, real peace of mind. When signals come back four times a year and from several sources, you steer on facts rather than impressions.

Key takeaway. Both decisions rest on the same bet: give autonomy, then measure what it produces. Without measurement, a good intention stays a good intention. With measurement, it becomes a social indicator you can defend in front of a client, an EcoVadis auditor or a bank.

Where to start in your own company

No need to launch everything at once. Here are three steps to get you going.

Step 1: take your baseline

Before you change anything, measure where you stand today. Otherwise, in a year's time, you will have no way of knowing whether your decision worked, and you will be left with impressions.

In practice: around ten anonymous questions sent to the whole team, answered on a scale of 1 to 10. Overall satisfaction, workload, clarity of priorities, quality of collaboration between departments. You send the same survey out each quarter, without changing the questions, otherwise the comparison loses its value.

At the same time, pull three figures you already hold in your systems: your absenteeism rate, your staff turnover rate and the number of hires over the year. That is your starting point.

Step 2: build a review system that fits you

Our rhythm is four moments a year. It works for a team of our size, with roles that evolve quickly. It will not necessarily be your rhythm, and that is perfectly fine.

Frequency is specific to each organisation. It depends on your size, your roles, and the time your managers can realistically devote to it. Two well run conversations beat four rushed ones.

What matters is having a solid system: clear objectives, a written structure, proper preparation time on both sides, and decisions that follow the conversation. Once that foundation holds, you adjust the frequency and you work out whether a 360° makes sense for you.

Step 3: find your own recipe

A free Friday is our answer to the question of work life balance. It will not necessarily be yours.

Rather than copying a practice you have seen elsewhere, put the question to your teams. A focus group with your HR lead and ten or so people from different departments, two hours, one question: what would genuinely improve your working week?

The answers are often surprising. It might be the four day week. It might be more flexible hours, a guaranteed day of remote work, no meetings after 4pm, or a real right to disconnect. What you end up with is a measure your teams asked for, rather than one decided from above in the belief that it would please them.

And on the certification side

These three steps feed directly into your social pillar: working conditions, skills development, internal dialogue. That is precisely what your clients and standards such as EcoVadis or B Corp come looking for in their questionnaires.

And they do not only ask whether the practice exists. They ask how long it has been in place, how you track it, and what it has produced. Which brings you back to step one.

Want to put real numbers behind your social pillar?

We work with Belgian SMEs that want to turn their HR practices into solid indicators, useful both for their teams and for their certifications.

Book a 30 minute call with our team. We review your current practices and identify the ones that would move your EcoVadis score or bring your B Corp certification within reach.

👉 Book a call with ESGlogic