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Published: 26 Mar 2020

Formedix – Winner 2020 – Scottish Top Employers Award (Small Employer)

Formedix is a Glasgow based software developer with a platform to help pharmaceuticals companies manage clinical trials more quickly and efficiently. This business is all about automating manual tasks, helping pharmaceutical firms get medicines to market faster.  

The working culture of the business has been flexible since the beginning in 2000 with a focus delivering key outputs for clients. Today,  all Formedix employees have the option to work a 4-day week for the same salary, including the leadership team. This change was initially piloted during a six-week period with employee feedback monitored throughout and finally implemented on a permanent basis with consent form 100% of employees.  

Winning insights  

  • Implemented 4-day working week, for the same pay & fewer hours. Staff now work 136 hours per month instead of 150.  
  • Staff can do a 5-day week if they prefer.  
  • Core office hours are 10am-3.30pm, but staff choose their hours of work, so can start/finish as desired.  
  • Flexible hours: Staff work 136 hours per month, but no set number of hours per day/week.  
  • Flexible office entry: All staff have 24/7 access to the office.  
  • Flexible breaks: No set break times.  
  • Flexible placements: We offer term & part-time placements. Students can design their working hours around university or college.  
  • 89% of staff said it has increased their job satisfaction.  
  • 94% of staff said it positively impacted their work-life balance.  
  • 55% of staff said it had boosted their productivity.  
  • 45% of staff said their productivity had remained the same.  
  • Since implementing the trial on 09/09/19, to date we’ve had 0% absenteeism.  

What their people say:  

“Having that third day off at the weekend makes a big difference. You feel like you get a proper chance to relax. It’s like that feeling on a two-week holiday -that it’s not until the second week – you begin to relax and enjoy it. Weekends feel like that now, and it means I get to spend more quality time with the kids. Rather than getting home late and just having time for typical end of day routine stuff like homework, we get to spend more time doing fun things together. From a personal perspective, I have more time for the things I love doing, like photography.”