An interesting study carried out by Osservatorio Smart Working of the School of Management, Politecnico di Milano offers the latest and most complete picture of these new working models in Italy. The SW model means significant benefits for both the company (increased productivity of the average worker by 25%, that can even reach 50%, and a reduction in labour cost of about 1,7 billion Euros) and the National Economic System: if 10% of workers driving to their work place could choose teleworking for 100 days a year, we would save 47 million hours, 407 million Euros, and have 307 thousand tons of carbon dioxide emissions less.
The levers to carry out a Smart Working system
A SW system is based on the combined planning of technological, organizational and managerial levers taking into account three chief scopes:
1. Configuration of the physical work space
2. Technologies for the virtual work space
3. Working styles and organizational policies
When HR management succeeded in promoting this renewal, there were remarkable benefits as regards improvement of motivation and a better balance between work and family life (84%), reduction of the absenteeism rate (55%) and increase of working performance and productivity (48%).
Smart Workers in Italy
The study, carried out together with Doxa, shows that about 8 workers out of 10 make use of an ICT device for over 50% of their working time (68% PCs, 17% Mobile). Although technologies allow to perform one’s tasks at a distance, only 5% of workers adopt a “Smart Worker” style, marked by the choice of one’s work space (Distant or Mobile Worker), working hours (Flexible Worker) and the tools to use (Adaptive Worker).
Smart Working 2012 is supported by Alcatel-Lucent, BlackBerry, Doxa, Plantronics, Telecom Italia, Websense; Aastra, Microsoft.
The winners of Smart Working Awards are Amadori and Sace. Special mentions to Vodafone and Heineken.
In the photo: Cisco System headquarters, one of the first examples of Smart Working in Italy. (2009, Massimo Roj Progetto CMR). Photo by Beppe Raso.
