What Does New Work Mean?
The term New Work has been floating around in the media for some time, but its exact meaning is not familiar to everyone. New Work encompasses extensive changes in the world of work. It means "working to live" rather than "living to work." New Work is more than just a new technique for modernizing and facilitating work.
New Work stands for new working methods and technologies in everyday work, but also for a continuous change in leadership culture, which should focus more on the needs of employees.
The “why” of a company is symbiotically related to the “why” and “how” of employees. This results in new fundamental questions that arise from the New Work philosophy:
- Why do we do what we do as a company?
- Why am I here?
- How do we want to achieve our goals as a company?
- What contribution do I want to make as an employee and how?
Difference Between New Work and Work 4.0
Work 4.0 is a term for new forms and conditions of work that develop from the changes brought by New Work. The focus is centrally on digitalization. Old work structures are broken down to make way for technological progress.
This creates opportunities for temporal and spatial flexibility. The foundations for a successful transformation are independence, freedom, professional and personal development opportunities, and the company's social reliability.
So what's the difference? New Work and Work 4.0 go hand in hand. New Work deals with the values and attitude of the new world of work, while Work 4.0 focuses on implementation.
The “9 to 5” model, as we have known it, is being replaced by Work 4.0. The future focus is on a flexible design of the workday, depending on the scope of work rather than time. It’s time for smart work and not long work.
Promoting proactive thinking among employees within the company is essential. A high degree of responsibility from both employers and employees is required to make the new values attainable and livable for both sides.
New Work Defines Your Workplace
New Work provides space for employees to develop and realize themselves in their profession. It is not just "a job," but an activity that one enjoys and looks forward to every day. This also introduces an important interface to “work-life blending” – this adaptation of work-life balance is a new perspective that aims to merge the work world with private life without clear boundaries between the two areas.
However, it is important to note that not everyone strives for self-fulfillment or wants to develop in their profession. Some employees just want to perform their duties without having to make major decisions themselves. The same applies to work-life blending; some want to keep work and private life strictly separated.
For these team members, implementing New Work works best in smaller groups to gradually dissolve outdated structures and introduce New Work models.
Two characteristics of New Work are working from home and flat hierarchies. Both are easy to implement and can be a starting point for implementing a contemporary work concept. Also, self-responsible division of working hours is generally a good lever for introducing modern work methods.
However, it should be checked to what extent flexible scheduling is feasible for the team and tasks. If interconnected tasks require everyone to be present at the same time, flexible scheduling is not advisable.
Difference Between New Work and The Future of Work
The Future of Work encompasses the same visions as New Work and Work 4.0. It is the umbrella term for digital transformation and describes the new demands on the work world. Here, too, mobility, flexibility, and digitalization are at the forefront.
The Future of Work requires high mutual trust, self-responsibility, and close communication: one achieves maximum flexibility in designing their work, deciding when and where to work. On the other hand, one is responsible for completing assigned tasks in a disciplined and timely manner.
The transformation of our work world cannot happen overnight and must be regularly evaluated and adjusted. A crucial aspect is good communication within the team to ensure that the quality of adjustments can be regularly reviewed and that both employers and employees benefit from the changes.
Another important point is mutual trust. Self-responsibility and proactive behavior of the employee give New Work its meaning. In the long run, it makes work easier for both the employee and the supervisor and increases satisfaction on both sides.
This also includes appreciative leadership at eye level, which is achieved in connection with coaching and democratic decision-making. Finding common solutions increases the employee's sense of belonging to the company and mutual acceptance.
A study by appinio found that corporate culture has a significant impact on employee satisfaction. Companies with an open feedback culture or described as innovative performed best in the study evaluation.
Reasons for Job Changes During the Coronavirus Crisis (Source: appinio, 2021)
The study also clearly showed that appreciation for employees is very important and a lack of it leads to dissatisfaction. New Work comes a bit closer to solving this problem: Increased self-responsibility enhances the feeling of appreciation, and flat hierarchies create a better communication basis where problems can be addressed and solved more quickly.
New Work During the Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has shown the world that New Work works. The option to work from home was not possible before the pandemic. Today, however, this way of working is indispensable in our work world. Attitudes towards working hours and workplaces have fundamentally changed, motivating employees to stay in the home office even when the pandemic is no longer the primary reason.
However, the beginnings were quite complicated. Various online tools had to be learned and integrated into everyday work. For some, working with digital media from home was a major challenge because the necessary IT infrastructure had to be set up first.
Remote work and home office are viewed positively by many. Key factors for this positive assessment include health prevention and easier work-life blending. Disadvantages of the home office are increased distractions, lack of motivation, and social isolation.
The Future of Work Means Remote Work If Desired and Possible
Remote work now also makes it possible to hire employees outside the company’s location. This makes a company even more attractive, especially to the younger generation. The company itself can reduce office costs, as renting large offices is no longer necessary.
During the pandemic, many employees feared losing their jobs. Out of fear, they looked for new jobs themselves and switched to another employer. The appinio study shows that one in three people changed jobs out of fear of losing their job.
With the easing of coronavirus measures, it is again possible to go to the office, and more and more employers expect their employees to be on-site, even though the home office has worked well. Only a quarter of respondents are completely flexible in their work approach.
Many employees want hybrid work or to work entirely from home. Reasons include health considerations and the success of the home office, which has become a pleasant office solution for many, prompting them to continue this form of work.
New Work: Digitalization in Practice
Most employees want to continue remote work and home office.
However, the question arises as to how high the level of trust is between employees and employers. In the appinio study, 6 out of 10 employees believe their supervisors trust them when working from home. In contrast, only 4 out of 10 employers truly trust their employees when they work from home.
The flexible workplace is only possible through online tools. These were quickly implemented for many employees due to COVID, without the necessary training being conducted in parallel. One in five respondents believes that the circumstances couldn’t have been handled better.
Trust in the Home Office: Employers are Skeptical Towards Employees (Source: Appinio, 2021)
Everything is being implemented more digitally and made as agile as possible. A good example of this is job interviews. Initially, health reasons were a factor in holding online interviews. Now, online interviews have become the norm, though the personal touch of an in-person interview is missed by one-third of respondents.
While accepted and tolerated as the new norm, online interviews are perceived as cold and distant.
Conclusion
Overall, “The Future of Work” will establish itself in our work world. New Work is a significant efficiency booster that can benefit employers, employees, and companies. A keyword for this is communication.
New Work is a mutual give and take, requiring close coordination and mutual understanding if the implementation does not work as desired. This new form of work allows for a wide range of possibilities and can be adapted to the company after evaluating potential new structures.
Not everything new must work for every work environment. A fusion of old and new can also be the best option for a company. Therefore, the saying applies: “The surest way to success is always to try again.”
