In a world that is increasingly multimedia, virtual, digital and constantly connected, there is an always more common term: “smart working”.
Also because of the close current events and specifically the latest events regarding the emergency Corona Virus, there has been much talk about this topic, although for many people the literal meaning may be easy to understand, what is it specifically? How best to implement it? And more importantly, why?
Let’s try to answer those questions…
TELEWORK AND SMART WORK
First of all, a necessary premise, telework is not smart working. Although they may be similar and although there is often a tendency to confuse, or rather, to “overlap” these two ways of managing the working relationship, the difference is substantial and manifests itself in terms of flexibility and autonomy.
While in telework, working hours, places and technological tools are pre-established and reflect the same organizational structure used in the traditional workplace, in smart working (literally “agile work”), working places and hours are freely chosen by the worker.
In short, teleworking involves moving (in whole or in part) the place of work from the company’s premises to another location (usually the employee’s home), but the employee is bound to work from a fixed and pre-established position, with the same time limits, charges and working time as he/she would have in the office.
On the contrary, smart working does not have space and time constraints, except for the maximum duration of daily and weekly working hours; in this sense, we can say that the company and the employee redefine their working methods in a flexible way, focusing mainly on the achievement of objectives and results.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW
In Italy, between 2018 and 2019, there was a 20% increase in companies that have implemented a smart working model and it is estimated that almost 60% of the so-called large companies are following this path; the phenomenon has also taken hold in the public administration and according to some estimates there are currently over 600 thousand smart workers.
The phenomenon is therefore growing, but there is still a large resistance from some people who find it difficult to separate work from the workplace. Although the phenomenon of digital nomadism and smart working are increasingly widespread, a decisive change of pace is still lacking in order to slowly rewrite a new and renewed work culture.
Perhaps a health emergency such as the one we are going through, could be the push that is missing for a widespread experimentation of remote work, thus laying the foundations to change the fate of our way of working in the future.
A CULTURAL CHANGE
With the concept of “smart working”, we can see how revolutionary it is: we are talking about a cultural revolution, a new and avant-garde way of understanding work based on a culture focused on results and the evaluation of real performance.
It is an approach that presupposes a profound ideological change, a radical revision of the organisational model of the company (private or public) and of the methods that characterize work not only outside but also inside the company, with a view to increasing flexibility, virtualization and collaboration between people.
Why would a company encourage and promote this? What would be the benefits?
BENEFITS FOR THE COMPANIES…
The benefits of introducing smart working by companies are significant and can be measured primarily in terms of improved productivity, greater employee responsibility, reduced absenteeism and reduced costs for physical spaces.
The “Smart Working Observatory” has estimated (according to data for 2019) a quantifiable increase in productivity of the order of 15-20%; working hours are perceived as less restrictive and the activity is often carried out with greater motivation and greater awareness of the objectives.
The “absenteeism” discourse would disappear as a multitude of unforeseen circumstances related to private life (or, at least, they could be “bypassed” more easily) and to the outside world would disappear: for example, a worker who until yesterday went to work by train could tomorrow face a day of strikes by means of smart working.
To all this we could add the reduction of costs for physical space and a general optimization of time.
BENEFITS FOR WORKERS…
Also from the employee’s point of view, the advantages of smart working are many and we could summarize them all in an improvement of the so-called “work-life balance”.
Firstly, the employee would certainly feel more responsible for his/her work, which would increase motivation and satisfaction; secondly, he/she would undoubtedly benefit from a reduction in the main sources of stress.
Another important benefit is the reduction (or in some cases the total reduction) of transfer times and costs.
…AND BENEFITS FOR THE PLANET!
The environment also benefits from smart working.
Over 80% of people use at least one means of commuting to work: it is easy to see that reducing commuting does not only affect the worker’s finances, but also has a positive impact on our planet. A reduction in the number of vehicles on the road leads to a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions.
However, to work remotely, network coverage and the reliability of any other service are fundamental.
WHY CHOOSE T&N SOLUTIONS AND INITPC
The worker must have all the means available to carry out his work and the company must be able to count on a system of safe and reliable tools and technologies.
In T&N Solutions we have been dealing with these aspects for years, providing advice and constant support.
There are many ways in which we can provide support, with a range of solutions aimed at ensuring reliable and constant operations; here are some examples. . .
- Network virtualization, cloud server implementations, firewalls and Vpn, to have a simple and secure network of connections
- Configuration of systems such as Office 365, in order to take advantage at any time of useful and efficient tools such as OneDrive (a system to manage, edit and store your files at any time), Teams (the best way to share and communicate with your workgroup), as well as all the classic and well-known software of the suite (Outlook, Exel, . .)
- Void services, to manage your telecommunications with the ability to connect and “transfer” company landlines to smartphones and to manage calls in any location and situation.
- Management, supervision and monitoring of physical and virtual servers
These are just some of the many services we can offer and customize according to the needs of each client, but we can also take care of the supply of computer and mobile systems directly through our e-commerce www.initpc.com , where you can find and order material of all kinds.
Enjoy your smart working!
