Remote Work as Part of New Work

Since Covid, working from home has become indispensable for many employees. The flexibility gained, the time saved on commuting and the associated costs reduce stress and make for a better work-life balance.

Working from home is booming and the classic nine-to-five job is increasingly disappearing. It is another step towards New Work. But what exactly is New Work? What does remote work have to do with it, and what will the future of work look like? We explain in our latest magazine article.

Remote Work as Part of New Work

Remote work is part of a much larger change, namely New Work. New Work describes the world of work of the future and brings together all the developments that stand for a modern, employee-focused working environment. This change is driven in particular by digitalisation, which received an additional boost from the coronavirus pandemic.

This presents numerous companies with new, challenging situations: as processes are automated, many jobs are lost, while at the same time new professions are created, for example in IT or UX. As there are so far hardly enough qualified people for these new fields, a skills shortage arises. On top of that, the Baby Boomer generation will retire in the coming years and be gradually replaced by the younger Generations Y and Z. They enter working life with new values and therefore also make new demands on companies. Depending on how an employer is organised, the mindset regarding hierarchies and working culture has to be adapted. This is the only way for companies to remain future-proof. (Haufe Akademie, n.d.)

What exactly does that mean?

Gen Y and Z are the generations of today and tomorrow. For both, work-life balance and self-fulfilment are particularly important values in life. Companies have to make even more of an effort to ensure that developing individual potential takes priority in everyday work. Only then will employees of Gen Y and Z stay motivated and engaged in the long term, which in turn means that competitiveness and customer satisfaction increase. And that brings the employer many benefits too. (Haufe Akademie, n.d.)

To implement New Work, the following measures above all are necessary:

• Flatten hierarchies – Taking part in projects should no longer be determined by department or hierarchical level, for example. What matters far more are the interest, ideas and skills that employees bring with them.
• The sharp-elbowed mentality is a thing of the past: team members should support one another, and teamwork should be encouraged even more strongly. This leads to significantly better results.
• The team composition of the future is more diverse, more agile and more closely networked. Employees with different areas of expertise can be brought together more easily.
• Employees and their skills are developed individually and so deployed even more precisely.

Digital tools are becoming ever more important in everyday work; they connect employees and take over time-consuming tasks.

What Will Workplaces Look Like Under New Work in the Future?

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, working culture in Germany has changed significantly. Digitalisation and networked working accelerated because of the extensive contact restrictions, and entire companies moved to working from home. Flexible working hours and work-life balance had already been part of New Work for some time, but very few companies had offered their employees genuine remote options before 2020. (Haufe Akademie, n.d.)

Employers that were already pursuing the New Work approach before Covid redesigned their offices back then so that employees could thrive better. New working environments were increasingly created to encourage communication and exchange among employees. Many employers also gave their employees the option of working from home at least a few days a week. This was a measure that certainly proved successful. (Haufe Akademie, n.d.)

The forced shift from 2020 onwards then made remote work the new everyday reality for many employees. And as the restrictions were gradually lifted in 2022, many offices evolved from traditional workplaces into meeting places that promote social interaction. (Haufe Akademie, n.d.)

Today, employees say that they increasingly want to work from home rather than return to the office. The reasons: saving commuting time and costs, and being able to arrange their working hours flexibly. Remote work also allows employees to work wherever they spend their free time. "Workation" is a huge trend: because the work is done online, it is even possible, depending on the agreement, to work from abroad for a certain period. And that is not all: specialists are no longer tied to a location, do not necessarily have to leave their families for a job, and can now be hired across long distances.

Will Remote Work Replace Offices, Then?

No. A study shows that remote work will remain part of our working culture, but that offices will not lose their relevance. In a study by Fiverr International Ltd., a quarter of the employees surveyed can imagine a hybrid working model, and another quarter would even like to return to a full five-day week in the office. The reasons lie above all in the social environment and interpersonal relationships. Only a minority of 13% want to work entirely from home. The study also shows, however, that flexibility in the working model plays a particularly important role so that work fits in with employees' lives in the future. (business-on.de, 2022)

Many companies also want their offices to be better attended in future. Some even entice staff with higher salaries and other benefits. Their reason is the better technical infrastructure available in the office. 78% of the managers surveyed share this view. According to them, however, this can also be achieved in hybrid models. They are aware that working hours must be flexible and that the classic nine-to-five job is a thing of the past. (business-on.de, 2022)

To Sum Up:

Working culture in Germany has changed, and the New Work model is becoming increasingly established in companies. The model brings benefits for employees' work-life balance and flexibility. But companies benefit too. Thanks to location independence, they can employ specialists from other regions or countries who would otherwise not have been considered for the roles. At the same time, many companies and managers are once again calling for more presence in the office; in their view, the better infrastructure and in-person social contact make for better teamwork. Employees, on the other hand, would prefer a hybrid model.

We therefore believe that companies need to adapt to the working model that best suits the respective life situations of their employees.

Work-life balance plays an ever greater role among the younger generations in being happy. In our view, however, this also includes social interaction in the office. Companies should therefore do more now to make sure their employees enjoy coming into the office again, even if it is only a few days a week. Because happy employees are engaged employees, and only engaged employees make companies competitive on the market and keep customers happy.

Sources:

business-on.de. (09. 12 2022). business-on.de. Retrieved from https://www.business-on.de/zurueck-ins-buero.html

Haufe Akademie. (n.d.). https://www.haufe-akademie.de. Retrieved from https://www.haufe-akademie.de: https://www.haufe-akademie.de/new-work#definition-bedeutung