Finnish mobile games outfit Fingersoft is trialling a reduced working hours scheme with the aim of increasing wellbeing and supporting improved work-life balance.

For the next six months, Fingersoft will offer all of its employees the option to work 80 per cent of their usual weekly hours: either four days a week or six hours a day.

One caveat of the trials is that staff who opt-in will receive 90 per cent of their usual salary.

In addition to reduced hours, flexible hours and remote working will also remain available to provide more flexibility.

The company believes that creativity and productivity will not decrease as much as the time spent working.

Fingersoft will report its findings after six months and has stated that if the results of the trial are positive then the model will be permanently adopted.

It is commonplace for video game developers to work more than 40 hours a week, especially before a game is due to be released, known as crunch time. Fingersoft has said that crunch time has "long been a foreign concept" and that workplace wellbeing is taken seriously.

Reduced hours

Fingersoft’s recently appointed CEO Jaakko Kylmäoja has said that the reaction to the trial has been "really positive" and a vast number of people have already signed up.

"We at Fingersoft understand that we are all different, going through different phases in life," said Kylmäoja.

"For some, working eight hours every day is a good fit, but for some of us, balancing work and personal life is better achieved with reduced working hours. However, for many of us the decrease in salary that comes with it has felt like a dealbreaker.

"We strongly believe that, particularly for people working in a creative industry, having more time for recovery will increase the relative value of their input and prevent burnout. This is why we want to offer anyone wanting to work 80% hours during this six-month experiment 90% of their full salary. Based on the results of this trial we will decide if this model becomes a permanent practice for us."

Earlier this year, Apple employees claimed that they were struggling to have work-from-home requests approved as the company rolled out a new hybrid working week.