DESIGN ORGANIZATION AND ENVIRONMENT / ROCÍO DEL PRADO
Experts from the University of Navarra and the Organización de Directivos de Capital Humano (DCH) present the main conclusions of the qualitative research carried out by interviewing 30 Human Resources managers in Spain, and calibrated in a focus group with 15 members of the DCH committee advisor .
"Telework is a systemic change in the way of developing the work and affects all aspects of the business and the person" says Alberto Andreu, director academic Master's Degree Executive in Human Resources and Digitalization. However, it is the "soft" elements of telework that most concern organizations in the process of implementing telework.
According to the conclusions of the publication, in the "soft" field, teleworking calls for a leadership style based on trust and not so much on control, and also contributes decisively to improving the working environment. However, collaborative intelligence requires a certain amount of presence and managers say that the big challenge challenge is to maintain the corporate culture and values when employees do not go to the office.
On the "hard" side, the model of work hybrid (remote/office) will be maintained after the pandemic. Therefore, measuring remote productivity will require a good definition of objectives. Also, research reveals that an efficient balance must be found between control schedule and autonomy staff. However, the costs of remote work cannot be managed in isolation from other operating costs. And among all companies, the study reveals, those that had already started to implement teleworking prior to the health emergency status have shown greater ease in scaling up teleworking.
In the field of operational aspects, technology has been the great enabler and cybersecurity, the pending subject whose demand has increased with the explosion of teleworking. Physical space, however, will not disappear in this new scenario. Although it will change its design to make it more attractive, efficient and collaborative.
The research, developed by professors of the University of Navarra at partnership with DCH, sample a theoretical framework , which includes a comparison of the legislation on this subject in different European countries; an approach to the current reality of work at a distance of companies operating in Spain, extracted from interviews with 30 HR managers; and offers a list of recommendations to put in internship.
Conclusions on hard aspects of teleworking
1. The model of work hybrid (remote/office-based) will be maintained post-pandemic.
All interviewees agreed that teleworking is here to stay. It remains to be determined what percentage of time of the workshop work will be done remotely and what part in person. From the interviews held, it can be deduced that the optimal option (in many cases) may follow the 3+2 formula, i.e. three days in the office and two days remotely. Of course it will depend on subject of work. From the more individual and process oriented (e.g. administrative work) to team and creative work (e.g. marketing related work and design). The 3+2 option facilitates a progressive transition to new modes of work and allows flexibility, which is very attractive for both companies and employees.
2. Measuring remote productivity requires a good definition of objectives. Good productivity indicators will make it easier for telework to take hold, because telework will be sustained only if companies find a way to keep their productivity indicators the same or better than with their on-site workers. Productivity depends on many factors: remote workers will be productive to the extent that the business adequately suits the processes, energy, concentration, coordination and cooperation. The ability of business to promote the well-being of its partner, both in the office space and at home - or other spaces such as satellite offices and co-working - and to communicate its objectives and plans to work, will be the elements core topic of the new formula for measuring productivity.
3. It is necessary to find an efficient balance between control schedule and autonomy staff. One of the most intense debates in the interviews has been whether to recommend to employees to comply with the remote work workshop in the same way as they have been doing so far (and thus facilitate the legal requirement of control schedule) or, on the contrary, to give freedom to employees to adjust their schedules as they see fit, thus taking full advantage of the flexibility that teleworking allows. In any case, the option of giving freedom of schedules is conditioned to the fulfillment of the objectives and to the reservation of time slots to be able to respond to the requirements of synchronous work, that is to say, those that are carried out by several people at the same time.
4. Teleworking costs cannot be managed in isolation from the rest of the operating costs. The publication of the Royal Decree-Law 28/2020, of September 22, of work a distancia, foresaw that the costs associated with teleworking should be covered by the companies after negotiation in the collective agreement . Some possible costs associated with teleworking are internet, means and tools for the correct fulfillment of tasks, part of the rent, the costs of attend to a coworking and those associated with the welfare of the worker. Some managers consider that the regularization of expenses threatens to weaken the development of teleworking in the long run deadline. But those that have opted to maintain it have managed to establish a fixed fee thanks to the reduction of other expenses; some have opted to maintain the monthly "transport bonus" or " per diem expensesfee" to compensate for teleworking expenses (this fee ranges between 39€ and 55€ and it is expected that the figure will be regulated in the future).
5. It has been easier to scale telework for those companies that had already started to implement it before the health emergency status . The pandemic has been an accelerator for the implementation of telework in all companies. Those companies that had already initiated this form of work, experienced for the first time its deployment for the first time and found it relatively easy. On the other hand, those that had barely deployed it, the pandemic helped them to get off the ground.
Conclusions related to the soft aspects of teleworking
1. Telework calls for a leadership style based on trust and not so much on control. This leadership was already beneficial and necessary before. But now it is essential. When workers are remote, the role of the manager must be oriented to support, solve problems, create a team, make the company's culture present. It is not appropriate to seek to control and track projects exhaustively. A culture of leadership and trust will make the transition to telecommuting more efficient, both for leaders and employees.
2. The great challenge is to maintain the corporate culture and its values when employees do not "set foot" in the office and work remotely. One of the main challenges during the confinement, in which we have not teleworked but "survived", has been to "make visible" the business, its culture and values in the workers' homes. When part of the employees work remotely, corporate communication, that of the leaders with their teams, is more relevant to maintain the corporate culture. Additionally, it has been highlighted the difficulty and concern that generates promote cultural changes when employees are remotely located, since this implies, on the one hand, a greater effort from business and, on the other hand, a higher level of commitment from employees with it. On the other hand, adapting to the needs of employees, allowing remote work , creates a climate of trust and appreciation that in itself is valuable.
3. Collaborative intelligence requires a certain degree of presence. Another of the debates that aroused most interest at research revolved around whether or not creative, collaborative and innovative tasks can be performed remotely and whether or not, if they are done remotely, their quality suffers or not. In this regard, research does not yield conclusive results: while for some of the interviewees idea generation requires physical presence, for others it can be done perfectly well remotely. This probably means that not all creative tasks, nor all phases of innovation, clearly benefit from one modality (remote or face-to-face) or the other. So, once again, the balance between office-based and remote work is once again an advantage.
4. Teleworking contributes decisively to improve the work environment. One of the most interesting findings of the research has been that the implementation of teleworking policies contributes to improve the work environment. This also happened during the first periods of confinement, in spite of the extraordinary nature of status. During the confinement, the improvement of the climate occurred both in those companies that already had flexible working space policies before the pandemic, as well as in those that deployed them during the health emergency. Interviewees attribute this to the increased trust and flexibility that comes from implementing telecommuting policies. The challenge now, when the pandemic status seems to be prolonged in time and with an unprecedented economic crisis, is to stabilize the climate indexes.
Conclusions related to the operational aspects of teleworking
1. Technology has been the great enabler of telework. There is a general perception that digitalization has advanced more in the five months of the pandemic than in the previous five years. The need to work remotely has led companies to learn about new collaborative work platforms, strengthen the cybersecurity of their data and servers and automate multiple processes.
2. The physical space will not disappear, but it will change its design to make it more attractive, more efficient and more collaborative. One of the most important changes that teleworking will bring in the future is the concept of the office. The question of why we really want a space is more present than ever. Spaces will have to be adjusted to the tasks that require presence, and that means that there will be no fixed spaces. There won't necessarily be room for everyone. And that the spaces will help more to the collaborative work , since the individual will be done from alternative places. Collaborative spaces are expected to be more than personalized offices. Thus, individual tasks will be scheduled for hours at home and work in teams will be the reason to go to the office. However, the spaces must also be thought in terms of customers and ask what the future contact will be like with them.
3. Cybersecurity concerns have increased with the explosion of teleworking. Even if cyber-attacks were already a reality before the outbreak of the pandemic, the explosion of teleworking has increased concerns about cybersecurity, as employees, in order to carry out their work, access company servers, using home (if not public) networks that are not necessarily sufficiently protected.
Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis (SWOT) of teleworking
The people managers of the companies surveyed have a positive view of work at a distance.
- Telework has weaknesses, which pose numerous challenges, but a) those challenges are surmountable and, b) the weaknesses are fewer than the strengths.
- It is expected that the implementation of "post-pandemic" teleworking will be very heterogeneous. Consequently, to assess the contribution of telework at business it is necessary to assess the how (you have to get into the fine print).
- There are many (and very serious) threats, but the opportunities are even greater.
