Sussex 4 Day Week
Dr Charlotte Rae is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex. As part of her research, she oversees the Sussex 4 Day Week project, collaborating with local employers to study the impact of reduced working hours on wellbeing, productivity and job satisfaction.
The Challenge
Dr Rae first came to work with the Sussex Innovation team as part of the CRoSS programme, exploring commercial applications for social sciences research. Although the initial Sussex 4 Day Week research project was funded by an internal University award, Charlotte was keen to explore a commercial model that would enable her to continue supporting businesses with trialling and adopting a four-day work week.
Our Solution
After an initial strategy session spent refining her value proposition and business model, our team understood that Sussex 4 Day Week (S4DW) held plenty of essential insights that could help SMEs manage a smooth transition into reduced working hours, and quantify the effects on wellbeing and performance.
However, the project website and marketing collateral gave the impression of a purely academic exercise, rather than demonstrating the commercial value of working with Charlotte and her team. We recommended a series of sessions with our marketing and communications team to refine the message, branding and marketing strategy for S4DW, retaining the credibility of the University’s backing, whilst presenting the service and its benefits in a more digestible way for paying clients.
The Outcome
Over the next year, Sussex Innovation developed a range of assets to help explain and promote the S4DW service, including a revamped website, e-book guide, introductory videos and social media collateral. We were also keen to build Charlotte’s confidence to create and publish her own marketing content and manage a sales pipeline, so our last collaborative sessions focused on coaching these skills and creating a clear process for identifying and converting clients.
Working closely with S4DW encouraged the Sussex Innovation team to experiment with reduced working hours ourselves, and following a successful trial at the end of 2023, the organisation has now adopted a hybrid 4-day week model that ringfences time for learning and development, volunteering and complex projects alongside extra rest days.
“Working with Sussex Innovation over an extended period of time – during which we really got to know each other – helped enormously in building my commercial confidence. As an academic broadening out to a business setting, the care and understanding that their Innovation Advisors gave was specialised and supportive. They also helped in a very practical manner, enabling me to identify the market need, develop the brand, and create a sales and marketing strategy. It has been a true collaboration.”
What’s Next?
Since commencing work with Sussex Innovation, Charlotte has delivered consultancy for her first paying clients, and is now approaching SME prospects in the South East with her offer. She has successfully applied for a research fellowship grant which has bought out her teaching time, allowing her to focus on developing wider consultancy opportunities whilst retaining her status as an academic expert.
Hear more about Charlotte’s entrepreneurial journey in her interview with the Sussex Founders podcast.
Are you looking for help packaging your research expertise for commercial consultancy? Or are you looking for any other commercialisation support, from protecting your intellectual property to forming a spin-out company? Find out more here.