Imagine it’s Friday and instead of the usual office routine, you find yourself in the middle of a hackathon for a pro bono project, planning a trip to the Dialogue Museum at Frankfurt’s Hauptwache, or asking passers-by on the Zeil about their thoughts on AI and sustainability. What do all these diverse activities have in common? They are part of the 4:1 week (“Four to one”) at statworx – a work model that provides space for personal development, innovative work, and social engagement.
Why did we introduce the 4:1 week?
At statworx, we faced a challenge: Our employees had great ambitions for further education but found little time for it. The workweek was filled with projects and appointments, and personal development often took a back seat.
To solve this dilemma, we introduced an innovative work structure in 2022: the 4:1 week. The principle is simple and effective. Four days of the week are dedicated to intensive work on projects. The fifth day, Friday, is all about further education. On this day, business goes on at a reduced pace, and employees can fully dedicate themselves to their professional and personal development.
This new structure has led to a noticeable change. It allows every individual at statworx to pursue further education and learn new skills, even during busy times. This not only promotes personal development but also the company’s innovative strength. While customer projects receive full attention from Monday to Thursday, Friday becomes a space for learning and inspiration. This way, we collectively maintain a balance between customer needs and employee development.
What training opportunities does statworx offer?
statX: Once a month, employees voluntarily meet to exchange insights from projects, personal knowledge, or new models and approaches. Topics range from deep learning with audio data to the AI Act and anomaly detection.
Clusters: The self-organized workgroups are the breeding ground for the development and promotion of expertise at statworx. Currently, there are fifteen clusters where employees can delve into topics that are particularly close to their hearts – thereby strengthening statworx’s overall innovation power. Here are three examples from our cluster portfolio:
- Bio Medicine Cluster: Development of AI applications in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields.
- NLP Cluster: Implementation of state-of-the-art models, best practices, and software for NLP, as well as multimodal applications of NLP models.
- Explainable AI Cluster: Engagement with methods to make black box AI models transparent and explainable.
Training Budget: Each team member at statworx has an annual training budget. This budget can be used for individual training measures such as online courses, external trainings, participation in conferences, certifications, and much more.
Technical and Non-Technical Trainings: Throughout the year, we offer a variety of trainings that develop both soft and hard skills. From effective communication and constructive feedback to software engineering and Scrum, numerous exciting topics are covered.
How do we know that our 4:1 concept works?
Through regular pulse surveys and our biannual employee satisfaction surveys, we collect anonymized feedback on the 4:1 model. This gives us insights into our team members’ personal experiences. Additional direct conversations with employees provide us with further valuable impressions to decide how we will shape and develop the program in the future.
Our interim conclusion is that with every certificate earned and each personal success story, the 4:1 week at statworx proves its effectiveness. We look forward to continuously refining the concept and supporting even more employees on their individual learning journey.
Colleagues confirm our preliminary conclusion:
“The 4:1 week gives me the opportunity to delve deeper into topics and areas of knowledge that I’m passionate about, alongside my project work. That’s why I, along with my colleagues, initiated the Bio-Medicine Cluster. And I contribute my software engineering skills to the Cluster for Technical Delivery to continuously improve the technical deployment of our solutions.” – Benedikt Batton, Consultant Data Science, AI Development
“The 4:1 week promotes individual professional development and provides space to create value in innovative ways beyond existing departments and hierarchies. In my time at statworx, work on Fridays has always been a source of motivation, inspiration, and self-fulfillment.” – Max Hilsdorf, Consultant, AI Academy
Would you like to be part of a work culture that makes space for personal development and a balanced ratio between project work and further education? Then visit our career page and apply now!