Fingersoft On the 6-Hour Workday Option & Its Impact on Employee Well-Being and Productivity

In February this year, Finnish mobile game studio Fingersoft announced that it would provide employees with the option of a six-hour workday, paying them 90% of their full salary.

Prior to this decision, approximately half of the company's 110 employees participated in an experiment, which included both a four-day week and a five-day week with six-hour workdays. Workers were allowed to choose between the two options, and the findings were surveyed by a third party. Fingersoft concluded that "the six-hour days showed more benefits for employees," which led to the decision to implement it permanently.

We talked to the company's CEO, Jaakko Kylmäoja, to discuss the experiment and the ways Fingersoft evaluated the success and impact of the six-hour working day option on employee well-being and productivity, spoke about the effects of the permanent adoption of the six-hour working day on the emotional well-being and stress levels of employees, and tried to find out the potential impact of the six-hour working day option on the recruitment and retention of talent at Fingersoft.

Introduction

80.lv: Please introduce yourself and your team to our readers. How and when did you join the games industry? What companies have you worked for? What projects have you contributed to?

Jaakko Kylmäoja: Developing games has been my hobby since my childhood. Before Fingersoft I worked for 4 years in a startup company, where we developed educational games for children.

During my 10 years at Fingersoft, I have worked as a Product Director, VP of publishing, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and now as a CEO for the last 2 years.

My complete industry-specific work history and projects can be found on my Linkedin profile. 

The Experiment

80.lv: Let’s talk about the experiment you conducted in 2021-2022. As far as we know the results have shown that the six-hour working day option was the best choice for your employees. What methods and strategies were used to evaluate the success and impact of the six-hour working day option on employee well-being and productivity?

Jaakko Kylmäoja: We did surveys to both those who participated in the experiment and those who did not where the focus was to measure personal well-being and the performance of the team. We had surveys at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the 12-month experiment. After the experiment, we had our fourth survey after 4 months without having the experiment active. 

In addition to the surveys, we interviewed participants and their team leads in every phase of the experiment. 

At the beginning of the experiment, we set a goal to find every possible problem this kind of working time model would cause and try to fix them during the experiment. That led us to make several adjustments to our policies, for example on how we use our calendars and how we communicate our availability as well as how often the teams would be at the office at the same time.

Six-Hour Working Day Influence on Employees' Well-Being and Productivity

80.lv: How did you determine that the six-hour working day showed more benefits for employees? How did the results of the experiment compare to the traditional work schedule, and what were the most significant benefits or improvements that you observed with the six-hour working day option? What were the key factors that influenced the decision to adopt it permanently?

Jaakko Kylmäoja: The results of both surveys and interviews indicate that the positive effects on the employees' well-being were greater for those that did 6-hour working days compared to those that did 4-day weeks. During the extra hours, our employees had more time to prepare healthy meals, start new hobbies and have time to relax.

We also learned that there wasn't a significant decrease in productivity on shorter working days, but doing one day less per week decreased productivity as much as the working time decreased.

Productivity Differences: 6-Hour vs. Traditional Work Schedule

80.lv: Have you seen any differences in productivity levels between employees who chose the six-hour working day option and those who stick with a traditional work schedule? How has this change affected the overall growth and success of the company?

Jaakko Kylmäoja: We haven’t seen significant differences in productivity between employees who chose the six-hour working day option and those who stick with the traditional work schedule. However, we learned that employees working 6-hour days tend to focus more only on completing tasks and use less time on more casual occasions, such as meeting co-workers at the cafeteria.  

Six-Hour Working Day Impact on Employees' Stress Levels

80.lv: How has the permanent adoption of the six-hour working day affected the emotional well-being and stress levels of your employees? Have you noticed any improvements in their overall happiness and job satisfaction since implementing this change?

Jaakko Kylmäoja: We have seen that the six-hour working day has had significantly positive effects on our employees' emotional well-being. According to third-party employee surveys made during the experiment, our overall happiness and job satisfaction have been on the very top level compared to all other companies they work with. 

Six-Hour Working Day Influence on Recruitment and Retention of Talent

80.lv: Do you anticipate that the six-hour working day option will affect the recruitment and retention of talent at Fingersoft?

Jaakko Kylmäoja: The main reason for implementing the six-hour working day was to provide our existing employees with tools to stay well. However, we have seen that our experiment has raised positive interest in many other companies and people in the industry, and therefore has had positive effects on our recruitment efforts.

Fingersoft's Roadmap

80.lv: What’s your current roadmap? What did you plan for 2023? When will we hear again from you?

Jaakko Kylmäoja: This year we have announced two new game projects, Hill Climb Racing 3 and LEGO Hill Climb Adventures. We also have other interesting projects going on, but we will inform players about them when they have reached the required phase for that. 

Jaakko Kylmäoja, CEO of Fingersoft

Interview conducted by Ana Kessler