Not only Bosch or Daimler are considered exemplary companies for flexible working time models. More and more companies are reorganizing their jobs thanks to modern end devices and the availability of cloud services. For example, a study on the workplace in the 21st century underscores the fact that the path to a mobile and flexible office is being taken. On behalf of Citrix in May 2015, Crisp Research carried out a survey in the DACH region among IT and business decision-makers. Around 40 percent of those surveyed assume that the classic office will sooner or later be ousted and the permanent workplace dwindles. Only with flexible working models, according to the study, could companies remain attractive to young, highly skilled professionals as employers ( more about the study here)What drives Daimler
A goal that, for example, also pursues the automotive industry, as explained by the works council chairman of Daimler's headquarters Jörg Spies: "In order to do his job, you do not have to be there on a daily basis. If Daimler wants to be an attractive employer in ten years' time, fair, mobile work must now be regulated in order to win the race for the most capable minds. "According to IG Metall, employee representatives of the car manufacturer have recently contacted their employees about their needs interviewed and working on a corresponding agreement. That it does not have to go in the first place for more free time, but possibly ultimately the company result can be positively influenced, hopes the group. "It's about a clever distribution of working time,
Experience from Bosch
Alfred Löckle, Chairman of the General Works Council at Bosch, has come to the conclusion that switching to a mobile workstation is not suitable for everyone: "Some employees had to discover that the company workplace is the better one." Because mobile work requires a high level of individual responsibility and discipline. If the boundaries between private and professional increasingly fade, the employee must be the more attentive that he is not overburdened and rest periods.The industrial company has been regulating mobile work since 2014. However, the conclusion after the first few months with the company agreement is also quite positive: "Private life and work can often be better agreed when working on the move," says Löckle.
In addition, employees want to be partially active from home: according to IG Metall, every second in the non-production sector employees. In order to make this possible, the technology has to meet the requirements of the respective employee and be configured in such a way that it is (gladly) used by the employee. Polycom, a technology and collaboration specialist, has been interviewed by Sir Cary Cooper, Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Manchester Business School.
Requirements for the technology
Flexibility, autonomy and ease-of-use are the three key criteria that technologies for the workplace of the future must meet, according to Sir Cary Cooper. According to Polycom, if IT accounters take these into account, they can "significantly increase user adoption, leverage the full potential of the solutions, and more quickly achieve the return on investment."
ease of Use
Technologies like Video Collaboration used to be often confined to fixed meeting rooms, complicated to handle and sometimes of poor quality. That's a thing of the past, "says Polycom. Video meetings could be started quickly and self-explanatory from any device - using new applications just by clicking on a contact from the address book. Built-in automatisms also facilitated the implementation. For example, unwanted background noise can now be suppressed, subscribers in the room are recorded and image sections are automatically adapted to it. In addition, individual UCC solutions such as video no longer exist as an island: integration into the entire UCC environment is crucial according to Polycom.
Flexibility as an important factor in the choice of the employer
For 92 percent of Generation Y (born between 1971 and 1997) flexibility is very important when choosing a job. It's not just about when you work, but also where and how. Sir Cary Cooper says: "Technology is what makes workplace flexibility possible." Only with the help of video collaboration could workers be able to connect with their colleagues from anywhere, at any time, work together on projects, and at the same time connect their private lives more easily with the profession ,
More control and freedom of choice for employees
Employees, according to Polycom, expect more and more control and choice over how and with what devices and technologies they work to be truly productive. Working with your own, familiar devices is very popular. Many companies are embracing the desire for greater autonomy: 54 percent of companies worldwide have already made "bring your own device" possible. Also important is the availability of technologies such as video on desktops and mobile devices, so employees have access at all times. Polycom points to a study in which one third of respondents said that better access to video solutions, such as mobile devices, would increase the use of workplace technologies in the future.
Workspace 2020 - Meet local expertsHow the workplace can look in the year 2020 and what requirements have to be fulfilled, you will also find out at this year's " CLOUD COMPUTING & VIRTUALIZATION Technology Conference " of the Vogel IT Academy, which will take place in four major German cities from 15.9.2015 (Details and Registration see box)Among other things, Matthias Wessner, Principal Architect at Login Consultants, explains in a lecture the technical aspects as well as the change in working life for the employees based on the generations and their demands on the work equipment.
So much will change, especially on the technical side - new financing options such as Kickstarter can make new developments even easier. The entire field of "Augmented and Virtual Reality" will increasingly find its way into work life as well. Basically, the expert assumes that the speed with which companies have to introduce technical innovations will increase dramatically.
This also applies to the topic of security : companies are required to introduce a consistent identity and access management in order to connect external cloud services faster and more efficiently. The external services are necessary to withstand the high speed.
Take advantage of the opportunity to exchange ideas with experts on current trends such as the workplace of the future at the " CLOUD COMPUTING & VIRTUALIZATION Technology Conference" (some VIP tickets are still available for free participation : application here ).
This year also deals with the issues that cloud concept meets the requirements in the company stand and how new trends such as cloud marketplaces, DevOps and OpenStack , the cloud strategy will affect customers.
