The big question on the table is: Should employees be allowed to continue working from their home offices or do they have to go back to the office?

Many company leaders disagree on this question. Some (such as Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk) insist on office presence, while others recognize that office presence is not necessary in every case. A shift in thinking is taking place, not least as a result of the experiences of the last few pandemic years. Companies are increasingly realizing that working from home can work well if they learn to trust their employees. Trust and connectedness are more important than ever.

As a result of the pandemic, many company leaders were forced to send their employees to the home office from one day to the next. For many company leaders, this working model was completely new and posed challenges in its implementation. Especially since they no longer had full control over their employees. However, they had no choice but to learn to trust their employees. In the end, even the biggest doubters were able to put aside their prejudices about working from home, as they noticed that their employees were significantly more productive in the home office, as they were able to work in a self-determined manner.

Some companies (e.g. the energy company RWE) rely on trust-based working hours. This means that employees decide for themselves when they work. They have recognized that as a company you have to move with the times and become more modern if you want to attract young people to the company. However, it is important that employees take care not to work more hours despite this freedom. Many trade unionists are critical of the danger of “extra work”.

So should employees rather go back to the office?

This question should be considered from different points of view. There are employees who commute every day and accept a long drive to the office just to be present in the office. This only makes sense if the presence is urgently needed to carry out the work. Certainly, most companies cannot do without an office presence. But an employee-friendly solution can be found for this as well. 

Gunnar Kilian (Volkswagen board member), for example, reports that the company made a digital push when the pandemic hit. They realized that they wanted to work more creatively together as a team in presence in the future. Judith Wieso (Siemens board member) reports something similar. She believes that people need to exchange ideas directly wherever cooperation and creativity are required. Zvezdana Seeger (Labor Director RWE) adds that first meetings were personal and emotional and gave them a creative boost. 

One has learned from the last 3 pandemic years and does not want to fall into old patterns. Today, many companies offer their employees much more flexibility on the job. Team members decide jointly with their managers who comes into the office and when. If flexibility in location is out of the question, there should be flexibility in time for employees. However, not every company manager knows how to implement this in a target-oriented manner. Here, one should consciously rely on the personal responsibility of the employees. A regular exchange with team members is important, especially if you are new to the company. This is often underestimated, but it is important in cooperation.

As Fränzi Kühne (Chief Digital Officer Edding) said so well: “Corporate culture is created at the coffee machine.” It’s where team members can talk to each other, both professionally and privately.

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*Source: SZ-Wirtschaftsgipfel

New Work is currently on everyone’s lips and is seen by many as the answer to the demands of the modern working world. It is hoped that this will lead to more flexibility, fewer hierarchies and participation in decision-making. However, this requires a genuine cultural change in companies.

Many still have misconceptions about New Work. The term is often associated with trendy start-ups, where hip offices offer 10 different types of cereal and post-its are stuck to the glass walls everywhere. This cliché is long outdated. New Work is increasingly spreading throughout Germany, in companies of all sizes.

Many companies are focusing on open office concepts and workplace autonomy. This means that anyone who comes into the office sits down where a team task is currently pending and where they are needed.

Since the pandemic, home office in combination with flexible working hours has also become increasingly popular. The same applies to job sharing, where you share a management position, for example. 

Some companies are even going one step further

They are reducing hierarchies and relying on the fact that decisions that were previously made solely by the boss are now shifted to the employees. The teams work together toward a common goal and must organize themselves in this regard. 

Two very radical models are holocracy and sociocracy. Here, the complete decision-making power is transferred to the group and the company is run democratically by executives. However, these models tend to be the exception.

The New Work model is spreading in more and more companies in Germany. This was the result of a survey conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering in Stuttgart on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

It’s time for new work models

Originally, the idea of agile working came from the IT industry, where the aim was to develop software faster. Today, agile refers to the state of constant change in the world of work.

Did you know that the term “New Work” can be traced back to the Austrian-American social philosopher Frithjof Bergmann?

It was he who worked with the unemployed in the American automotive industry in the 1980s, looking for a way for employees to find their work worthy and meaningful. As you can see, people have been working on this topic for quite a long time.

He developed a 3-pillar model in which wage work, community work and work that people really want to do complement each other. Nowadays, people have often moved away from this concept.

Implementation is not always possible

Introducing new structures is a good first step, but it is not enough, because the psychological empowerment of employees also plays an important role. To achieve real cultural change, it is critically important that employees feel that their work is meaningful and that they perceive themselves as self-determined, competent and influential. So it’s not enough to simply flatten hierarchies. Quite the opposite. If leadership tasks suddenly land with the team, this could quickly lead to conflicts. 

In some companies (e.g., nursing homes, daycare centers, etc.), physical presence is required, making home offices and flexible working hours simply not feasible. For the trade unions, occupational health and safety also play a centrally important role, because self-determination in the New Work model must not ultimately lead to self-exploitation of employees. It is enormously important to the unions that working hours are recorded. Flexibility and freedom are all well and good, as long as the employee does not suffer in the end.

Benefit for young workers

New Work is popularly used these days to “lure” new employees into the company. It makes a company much more attractive to many young people. Good pay has long ceased to be the decisive reason for applying for a job. Today, people also pay attention to the work-life balance and whether the job is meaningful. In the end, the conditions simply have to be right. 

There is a lot of potential for companies in the New Work model, because it has been proven that it can lead to less depression, later retirement and innovation. And, of course, it’s also about being successful in the new world of work.

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* Source: Tagesschau

The new “Hybrid Working” company agreement has been in force at Audi’s Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites since October 1. In the future, this will enable employees to freely choose their place of work. However, there is no intention to completely forego presence. In this way, work in production is also to become more flexible.

The aim of the new company agreement is to give employees more flexibility by allowing them to choose where they work. There would probably be no fixed days of presence. Audi is deliberately focusing on desk sharing, the redesign of office space and financial support for ergonomic equipment in the home office. The aim is to achieve a better balance between mobile and face-to-face work.

In the future, employees will discuss with their managers which days they will come into the office and which days they will work from home, “provided this is compatible with their work tasks,” says Audi. However, there will be no rigid guidelines in this regard. Quite the opposite. Instead, the company wants to let employees decide for themselves which working model is right for them, based on their respective life situations.

The previous “Mobile Working” company agreement has now been replaced by the new “Hybrid Working” company agreement. According to Audi, the experience has been positive. 

Xavier Ros (Member of the Board of Management for Human Resources and Organization at Audi): “The new company agreement is a consistent step toward a hybrid working environment and at the same time an expression of a corporate culture that is characterized by personal responsibility and trust, which we will continue to consistently promote in the future.”

The situation is somewhat different for production employees who cannot work from home. Here, better room concepts, new catering offers and more flexible working models are being planned to improve working conditions. Audi received support here from the University of St. Gallen, which surveyed 1,500 employees from over 100 different departments.

Nevertheless, Audi does not want to completely dispense with the office presence of employees, as personal contact strengthens the feeling of togetherness. “Innovative ideas are created in a joint exchange,” Audi says.

To make this possible, the technical and spatial conditions are now being created at the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites, in the form of project corners, meeting rooms, creative spaces and lounges, among other things. The focus here is on communication, networking and collaboration.

However, desk sharing is to remain voluntary, as some employees prefer a personal workstation. Such a desk can be booked via a digital tool.

Employees who work on a mobile basis and wish to participate in desk sharing receive not only technical equipment in the form of an IT package, but also a 500-euro voucher (currently up to 750 euros until June 30, 2023) for ergonomic office equipment. 

The new company agreement is an “elementary building block” of the “better normal” concept, which is intended to provide Audi employees with maximum flexibility. The basis for modern working models is the culture of trust and personal responsibility practiced at Audi, which strongly promotes them. 

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* Source: Elektroniknet

As a leader, you must learn to trust your employees. According to Microsoft, this is very important to keep your employees even in uncertain times. It’s statistically proven that hybrid workers continue to be productive.

In the new edition of the Work Trend Index, Microsoft shares the results of its global survey data for leaders and also provides valuable action tips. 

In recent months, the hybrid model has become more mainstream. However, employees and executives don’t always agree on how well the new work model is working. There is still a clear perception gap. For example, flexible working conditions are highly valued by employees. The majority of 87% think they are just as productive at work as before. However, many managers are not so sure about this yet. The majority of 85% find it hard to trust that the productivity of hybrid workers is consistent. 

According to Microsoft, however, the data clearly speaks for employees. For example, weekly meetings were already up 153% earlier this year compared to pre-pandemic times. So far this year, no trend reversal has been observed either. In addition, it has been shown that around 42% of employees perform other tasks during meetings, and this does not even include passive activities (e.g. reading emails).

In order to check the activity times of employees, some managers rely on opaque activity tracking, which undermines the relationship of trust. Microsoft itself also had such a tool on offer until the end of 2020.

At the very least, this is purposeful. Managers must learn to trust, otherwise the long-term success of the remote model and thus of hybrid work is at risk. It is therefore all the more important to show employees what is important on the basis of Objective Key Results. A corporate culture in which quality is rewarded instead of quantity also promotes a relationship of trust between employees and managers. 

For the new edition of the Work Trend Index, Microsoft surveyed a total of 20,000 full-time employees in 11 countries (Germany, France, England, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Japan, Brazil, Canada and the USA) between July 7 and August 2, 2022. The survey data is representative for all countries.

You can view the complete report for free: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-work

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* Source: Heise

Home office is becoming increasingly popular among employees and it is hard to imagine working without it. Today we would like to present the most important advantages of working from home.

1. Commute is omitted

Many employees work outside their home and often have to commute up to an hour to work on weekdays. Of course, this time could be used much more effectively in the home office, since working on public transportation is often difficult. However, if the commute is now completely eliminated, you can start working right away. Since the commute does not count as working time, you can get more free time by eliminating it. During this time, you can do something that is good for you.

2. Better work-life balance

We all know the problem: we have a time-consuming hobby, have a family or other important private commitments. Often it is difficult to reconcile all these commitments in everyday life without missing out on something. A real challenge!
By setting up a work-friendly home office, you can significantly improve your work-life balance, as you can usually freely arrange your working hours. This also allows you to decide when to take a break and meet your personal obligations.  

3. More flexibility

When you work in a home office, you are much more flexible, because you can keep handyman appointments during the day and receive your packages in person. It also allows you to better schedule doctor’s appointments or your children’s appointments, run urgent errands, and do laundry quickly during your break.

4. Less stress

By not having to commute to work, you avoid train delays or traffic jams, which can quickly raise your stress level. So you can go to your workplace relaxed.

5. Cost saving for you

By not having to travel to work, you save on the cost of your train ticket or the cost of gasoline for your car, which is a lot of money in this day and age. In addition, you will save on food, as the cost of lunch will be eliminated unless you brought your home-cooked meal to work. It’s best to cook fresh at home anyway. 

6. Cost savings for the company

By working from home, your employer can save on fixed costs for your workplace and lower electricity consumption. Of course, your employer has to provide you with your working materials once, but in the long run, the company can save fixed costs.

7. Protection against infections

By working in a home office, you can protect yourself well from infections because you are not in direct contact with your team members and the commute is eliminated. This reduces the risk of getting infected somewhere, which helps to keep the business running. 

8. Less distraction from team members

It may be hard to believe, but we are most distracted at work by other team members, not by our smartphone. Short conversations can quickly spiral out and half an hour has passed. In the home office, on the other hand, you can be less distracted by your team members. Of course, there are other sources of distraction, especially in the home office (TV, house cleaning, etc.). Here you need to show discipline and focus on your work.

9. Determine your own working rhythm

Here, the core working hours of the company must be observed. Otherwise, you can freely arrange your working hours, which can be very useful, especially for long-sufferers. This way you can work according to your very own biorhythm and be much more relaxed at work. 

10. More responsibility

Home office is great if you want to take on more responsibility. In a home office, you take sole responsibility for your work and motivation, because there is no one looking over your shoulder at home. You have to make sure that you get your work done on time because your company relies on you. This requires a lot of discipline as well as good self-motivation, as you can quickly get distracted by other things at home.

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* Source: Karrierezentrum

In an interview, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company has no plans to force your employees to return to the office.

“We have no plan to require people to come back,” Jassy said on stage at the Code Conference in Los Angeles last Wednesday. “Right now, we don’t. But we will be adaptive as we learn.”

In early 2020, Amazon tech employees were ordered to work from home to avoid infections. In October, Jassy said he was leaving it up to respective managers to make a decision on how often employees need to come into the office, which is the opposite of what he had previously planned – an “office-centric culture.”

Jassy said most employees returned to physical offices last Wednesday and worked from home some days. Certain teams tend to be in the office more often, such as the hardware or creative departments, while others, such as engineers, continue to work largely remotely, he added.

“I think there are some things that are harder to do remotely,” Jassy said. “I think it’s a little harder to invent remotely.”

Jassy had previously said the pandemic could have a lasting impact on how offices are used in the future. He noted that it has already impacted Amazon’s hiring of employees.  Today, Amazon is much more open to remote work and will recruit employees from any location, rather than focusing only on areas as it has in the past.  

The position Amazon is taking differs from some of its tech peers. In April, for example, Google had begun requiring a majority of its employees to work at least 3 days a week in physical offices. This led to some backlash from employees who opposed the mandate. And Apple also required a majority of its employees to come into the office 3 days a week starting this month. 

Watch CNBC’s full interview with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

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* Source: CNBC

If it were up to our Federal Minister of Labor, Mr. Heil, more employees should actually start working from home again in fall to protect themselves from an infection. However, this move has now been toned down after Heil received criticism from many quarters.

Last Wednesday, the federal cabinet passed a new Corona Protection Ordinance. After this employers are to examine in the context of a hygiene concept homeoffice and test offers for their employees only. This new regulation is to apply from 01.01.2022 to 07.04.2023.

An earlier draft of the regulation had still stated: “The employer shall offer employees to perform suitable activities in their home if there are no compelling operational reasons to the contrary.” 

In addition, an obligation to offer two tests per week was planned. This obligation was also abandoned. No obligation, but flexible action is the solution.

“The new regulation enables companies to flexibly adapt the measures to the incidence of infection. In this way, infections are prevented in the company and work and production losses are avoided,” Heil said Wednesday.

The appeal from employers to the government was heard: “Where work from home is possible, it will continue to be offered in the future. A push by the legislator is not needed for this,” said a statement from the employers’ association BDA.

Steffen Kampeter (BDA CEO) welcomed the changes: “It’s good that the rules have now been revised – better late than never,” he said in an interview with German Press Agency Employers and employees could effectively protect themselves from infection with caution and flexibility. For this, differentiated, situation-adapted measures are needed in companies, but not “government bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo.” In the fall and winter, for example, companies would use their tried-and-tested concepts for in-company infection protection.

There was criticism from the German Federation of Trade Unions: “Voluntary measures have demonstrably not worked well recently, few have worked from home – despite high infection rates. This is precisely why the mandatory offer proposed by Labor Minister Heil would have been the right way to manage the pandemic,” said board member Anja Piel. She called on employers to prevent employees from becoming infected on their way to work or in open-plan offices in fall and winter.

In March, the obligations for companies to offer tests and work at home had expired. At that time, the responsibility for taking appropriate measures was largely in the hands of employers. Then in May, the occupational health and safety provision for companies dropped out altogether. Now they want to reactivate it.

Reason: it is to be expected that the infection numbers will rise clearly in fall and winter. For this reason, appropriate protective measures should also be taken at work. Although the companies are to implement hygiene concepts again, they are fairly free in their design.

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* Source: Haufe

Do you want to ensure that your employees have the best conditions to work in a home office? 

Then it’s up to you to actively support your employees in creating a work-friendly environment. There are a few points to consider.

Technical equipment

Not every employee has a separate room within their own four walls that can be used as an office. Nevertheless, it is possible to set up a home office even in small apartments, which makes it possible to work in a focused manner. However, it´s important that the employees are equipped with the right technology. This includes a powerful laptop as well as a headset that can be used for virtual meetings and block out distracting background noise. In addition to the right technology, a fast and stable Internet connection is another important factor. 

Office equipment

Many employees don´t have professional office equipment in their home office and often use the kitchen table and a normal chair. This may work for a short period of time, but in the long run it´s detrimental to health, as it leads to poor posture and back and neck pain. Make sure that your employees have professional and ergonomic equipment by providing them with it. By doing so, you will not only actively promote the health and productivity of your employees, but also be able to retain them at the same time, as they will feel valued.

Digital office

To ensure that employees have access to all documents relevant to their work at all times, you should also be well positioned digitally and ensure that documents can be edited together regardless of location and device. A cloud solution isan ideal solution.

However, digitization doesn´t only include work-relevant documents, but also the HR department, which is responsible for ensuring that it´s accessible to employees at all times, even in the digital age. Applications, sick notes, pay slips should be transmitted in digital form. An all-in-one HR solution is an solution.

Trust 

When it comes to working hours, it’s up to you whether you want to track them or alternatively opt for trust-based working hours. If there is no longer a fixed office, you as the employer relinquish your control to a certain extent and have to trust that your employees are also productive in the home office. One way to express trust in your employees is to introduce flexible work schedules. 

Communication

Working from a home office eliminates shared communication and small talk in the office. This makes it all the more important to strengthen the sense of community within the team, for example by using virtual team meetings, team events or coffee breaks where employees can exchange ideas with each other. Don’t underestimate communication, as it´s important for any working relationship. Employees should get along and work well together as a team, so it’s important that they can build a relationship with their team members.

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Many companies are currently facing the challenge of developing a functioning home office model for their employees, especially in view of the home office obligation that may be introduced over Christmas. In addition to the technical hurdles, this also includes professional equipment and ensuring the corporate culture, which can be promoted and maintained through targeted measures. To ensure a strong corporate culture, open communication with regular feedback is essential. This also includes a common vision, which the entire team pursues and motivates. Of course, the well-being of each individual also plays a central role. It is therefore all the more important that there is a respectful interaction within the team. Experience shows that corporate culture has an active as well as positive effect on the behavior and productivity of employees.

A positive corporate culture brings another plus point, because in conjunction with the right personnel marketing measures, you will find it much easier to find motivated and qualified talents for your team and retain them in the long term. With a positive corporate culture, you can stand out from other companies and strengthen your employer brand. This is especially important for the younger generation, who want to work flexibly and freely with modern structures. Another important point for employee satisfaction is the social integration of each individual in the team, as otherwise you can quickly become lonely in a home office. As you can see, a company benefits in many ways from a strong corporate culture.

As a company, you are faced with the task of building and maintaining a value-creating corporate culture, even when your employees are in the home office.

In doing so, you are surely asking yourself the following questions:

How can you ensure employee motivation when there is no daily interaction in the office? What if the work-live balance of employees in the home office is disturbed? How can new team members be introduced to the corporate culture and taught the company values?

Working in a home office is usually very positively received by employees, as it does offer some advantages, not least increased flexibility. However, if it becomes a permanent obligation, it can frustrate some employees in the long run. The reasons for this can be physical strain due to an unergonomic workplace, but also psychological strain due to a lack of separation between private and professional life. In addition, a weak Internet connection can become a real challenge and make communication much more difficult. This also applies to regular exchanges and the associated teamwork. It can lead to employees becoming increasingly less motivated and not feeling a sense of belonging in the company, due to the increasing lack of a lived corporate culture. 

So how can you ensure that the corporate culture works remotely?

The motivation of employees is shaped not least by the corporate culture, because this also expresses the company’s commitment to its employees. The challenge now is to transfer not only the work processes but also the corporate culture that is practiced on a daily basis into the digital age. This can be a technical as well as a cultural challenge for the company if the digitization process has not yet taken place. The solution is an innovative and profitable use of communication channels to ensure a digital exchange in the home office.

To this end, it can be useful to introduce diverse internal formats. This can be, for example, a weekly meeting where employees can exchange ideas on a specific topic or current tasks as well as goals. In addition, you can introduce digital breaks and events (e.g. team or onboarding events). As a manager, take the time at regular intervals to ask how your team members are doing in the home office. It’s a small appreciative sign that can go a long way, especially with new employees.

During onboarding, make sure that the company culture is also conveyed remotely and provide the new employee with a “buddy” that the person can turn to at any time. This will help you integrate the new employee into the team more quickly. Of course, you should also not forget the health of your employees. This can be promoted, for example, through small digital sports sessions, relaxation techniques and autogenic training.

Strengthen the sense of belonging in your company and ensure that your employees can work digitally in the home office. Respond to your employees and their individual wishes, if this is feasible. Ask your employees and check the current situation in your company to clarify the exact need for appropriate measures and new formats. This will enable you to act in a targeted manner and make optimizations. Your employees will thank you for actively involving them in the process.

Would you also like to communicate your corporate culture digitally and thereby strengthen your employer brand?

We would be happy to put you in touch with a partner from our network who will work with you to develop an individual solution for your company. Please send us a message via the contact form.

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*Source: Oscar

According to a new study (conducted by Nicholas Bloom, Stanford University, among others), the hybrid work arrangement reduced the turnover rate in a large technology company by a full 35%. It also improved employee job satisfaction, but had no negative impact on performance evaluations or promotions.

During the pandemic, there was an explosion in remote working, which led many companies to adopt hybrid work arrangements for their employees. Employees typically spend 2-3 days per week in the office and worked from home the rest of the time. This allows them to separate the tasks they do better in person from those they do best individually.

If we take a look at the unemployment rate, we see that it is approaching its lowest level in 5 decades. This is causing even the harshest critics of home-based work to ponder and change their stance on attracting talent and retaining them long-term.

A randomized control trial (conducted by Bloom and Ruobing Han, Stanford University, and James Liang, among others) of 1,612 engineering, marketing, and finance employees was conducted at global travel agency Trip.com in 2021/2022. Employees born on an odd date (e.g., June 3) were given the option to work from home on Wednesdays and Fridays while other employees worked in the office. After the study, Trip.com then introduced hybrid work for the entire company. 

The study, which was released by the National Bureau of Economics, shows not only that turnover was greatly reduced, but also how hybrid work arrangements change work hours and work habits. For example, employees worked fewer hours on remote work days but more hours on other days, including weekends. Overall, it can be said that employees worked about 80 minutes less on work-from-home days, but about 30 minutes more on other work days and weekends. In addition, employees who worked from home used individual messaging and group video calls more, even when they were in the office.

There was no overall impact of working from home on performance appraisals or promotions, even for individual subgroups. Employees who had the option to work from home reported slightly increased productivity. The number of lines of code written by this group of people (a measure of IT engineer productivity) also increased by about 8% compared to office-based employees.

Overall, this shows that hybrid WFH is often beneficial for both employees and companies, but is usually underestimated upfront.

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*Source: Bloomberg