On Site with Sarah Daly: Creative Chemistry, the 4 Day-Work Week and Passion for People

It’s not every day that a human resources manager is flown to the world’s largest crypto event with the sole purpose of looking after the needs of the team. However, under the comfort of Sight’s employee experience director Sarah Daly, things run a little differently. For her, people sit at the heart of what Sight does - happy employees equals great work, great work leads to happy clients, it’s basic maths really. 

For context, this is no regular conference, thousands of crypto fanatics are streaming through the halls of the Madinat Jumeirah; with maxed out conference rooms, 500+ side events, attendees flying down zip-lines above Fort Island, it’s a complete sensory overload, one that Sarah is more than willing to jump head first into. 

Zip-line at TOKEN2049

In the middle of the main exhibition hall sits the on-site Sight office, a back of house production center where Sight employees go to recharge, manage the stage operations, on-screen content, and attend to any last-minute client requests. With an operations and event management background, and 20+years of experiences in hospitality, Sarah is sitting at the epicenter of the make-shift office, a harmony creator who ensures that the employee experience flows positively throughout the week. 

There’s no hidden truth that there’s a natural distrust between employees and human resources in 2025. With talks of a recession and our LinkedIn feeds flooded with lay-off announcements, human resource managers get caught up in the middle of profit-line based decisions, and highly stressed employees, it’s the ultimate case of “don’t shoot the messenger”. 

So, do human resource managers always need to learn the art of detachment? It really doesn’t seem that way with Sarah.“There's a science to people, and people are my passion,”she says,“Especially in the creative space - set up a bad environment for creatives, and the work will reflect the output - the creative spirit is strong, but also extremely delicate.” 

This may be one of the reasons why four-day work weeks are getting their trial around the world right now, with more and more companies jumping ship from the traditional five-day model. According toentrepreneur.com, 87% of companies now have Return to Office Policies, with 33% of companies demanding full-time attendance. Employees are seemingly unhappy with these changes, with 55% admitting they would rather quit their job if a five day mandate was applied. 

In witnessing the demand for flexibility, Sarah and Sight’s founder and chief experience officer Anna Patterson, have championed the agency’s four-day work week implementation, which sees employees have the option of taking either a Monday or Friday off each week to enjoy an extended weekend, or to perhaps work on their side hustle. 

“In the four days that our employees are in the office, there’s a creative chemistry at play,” said Sarah,“As employee experience director, one of my core jobs is to spark that creativity, whether it’s hosting inspiration showcases, cooking competitions, or overseeing the constructional flow of our Telok Ayer based office to ensure that it is at an optimal design for co-working and collaboration,” 

“I’m not going to sugar coat it, I know that human resources can get a bad rep. Decisions made are bureaucratic, communication gaps are prevalent, and there’s just a general distrust,” said Sarah,“But the role is essential in companies -there’s so much contract, paperwork, and legal involved, but my conscious focus is the employee experience.”  

Sarah Daly with the Sight Team 

Corporations around the world are currently facing a unique time in which there are multi-generations in the same workplace, from the digital native (but not mobile first) millennials, to the mobile-first, authenticity-driven gen zs who not just want, but demand transparent leadership, real-talk communication, and genuine brand values. With people being her passion, Sarah has learnt to embrace the differences and the similarities, and seeks to create a workplace where creativity, culture, and respect sits at the heart of the team. 

In a world where workplace culture is being redefined by the day, and human resource operations are ironically getting outsourced by AI, an in-house, and on-site Employee Experience Director is not the most common thing, in fact, some may consider it a luxury. 

In the ongoing debate of live to work vs work to live, individuals are increasingly seeking to find out their “why”. 

“My why is to simply keep the spark alive each day, the spark being the creation of a positive culture that fuels the creative waves that shape the essence of the team.” 

We return to the on-site Sight office, where Sarah Daly continues on with her daily mission - to keep human resources, human.