The New Way of Working is an international trend; cost-savings are key

Source: www.overhetnieuwewerken.nl

The New Way of Working is really taking off internationally. The recession has helped.

Increasingly more companies wish to economise on travelling expenses. They stimulate remote working and are doing away with the fixed workplace. This was revealed by het study 'Alternative Workplace Strategies in the Current Economy: A 2009 Global Benchmarking Study by New Ways of Working’ performed on 103 organisations with a total of 4.5 million staff.

The researchers go to such lengths that the word 'alternative' may almost be omitted from the phrase ‘alternative workplace’. In other words: The New Way of Working is increasingly becoming simply The Way of Working.

Recession
The study confirmed that the success of the implementation of the New Way of Working (NWW) largely depends on an integrated approach with attention for human resources, information technology and facility management. Companies that neglect one of these aspects run a high risk of failure. Nevertheless, they often only have one of these in order. Eighty percent of the organisations that participated in the study initiated its implementation in the last two years. The recession was an important stimulus. For just a few, the crisis put a break on NWW developments. For four of the five companies, the crisis meant that travelling expenses and the stimulation of remote working were of a permanent nature. Sixty percent scrapped fixed workplaces.

Alternative workplace
Home is the most important alternative workplace (89%), closely followed by flexible workplaces in the office. Working at a customer (37%) or in a satellite office in the vicinity of the place of residence of the employee (35%) is also becoming increasingly common.

Organisations that have integrally implemented NWW make use of all the alternative workplaces. Others let their employees work only at home.

Economic benefits
The priorities for the implementation of the New Way of Working have changed. It is now principally about hard economic benefits, such as economising on business accommodation costs. More in the background are the softer aspects of NWW, such as a better balance of work and private life, greater productivity and the employer’s increased attractiveness to new and current personnel. When asked about the motivation for implementing NWW, issues in the field of socially responsible entrepreneurship scored remarkably low.

The researchers concluded that many organisations do not yet make a connection between socially responsible entrepreneurship (less transport, less office space and less paper, etc.) and NWW.

Fixed workplace
Truly economising on workplaces fell short of expectations. 75% of staff who work elsewhere retain their fixed workplace at the office. Gaining insight into the use of alternative workplaces proved difficult, as a third of the businesses questioned kept no record of this. Half didn’t even register which departments and business units participate in the NWW projects and which functions it concerns.

The research was published by New Ways of Working Network in California, with the cooperation of Finn universities.