Simone Sgueo|HRM Save the Children Italia|28 July 2016
One thing is certain: technology has completely permeated our way of living, and our way of working as well. It does not exist a job (or almost) that does not look for innovation, well it is true that too often it is done in order to save money and costs of the human resources sector, but at the same time, it is hooked to an efficiency that the modern tools available can offer us, and that characterize above all, the most dynamic business realities and the start-ups.
However, the smart-working model, imposes a more careful evaluation. An evaluation that should first of all, take into account the characteristics of the activities carried out by the employees and for sure, their level of mobility both within the society and outside of the society. It is in that light that the Observatory of the Polytechnic University of Milan, has recently presented a more detailed analysis of a representative panel of the Italian workers, drawing as conclusions some functions that can be more assimilated to the smart-working. In short: Purchases, Informative Systems, Administration, Control and Finance, would be the main functions ready to adopt smart-working logics. On the other hand, instead, Human Resources and Organisation are the sectors that would fit worst.
As Save the Children, on one side, we fully agreed with some of the logics of the analysis of the Polytechnic, and not only, and of the smart-working in general, and in particular, we confirm that this immediately returns us three clear advantages:
- Management and costs efficiency (an office less full, more spaces for the employees, better rationalization of the work areas)
- Staff satisfaction: it surely fits between the most appreciated benefits and often better considerate by the candidates with whom the recruitment package is treated, as the wide time flexibility as well.
- Better performance results: the possibility to work from home, often gives back a major quality in the objectives achievement.
However, I do not totally agree with the Polytechnic’s analysis, as the most receptive areas to the use of the tool and where we find better results, are those of Marketing, Communication, in our specific the world of Programmes, specially intended as research and consultancy, and of the Human Resources, that instead can manage, not in a 100% smart-work, but maybe partially, on one or two days per week basis, a full personal ad professional efficiency.
To conclude, although the analysis of the market, gives us back today, clear signs that we are ready to pass to a 2.0 way of working, those signs are still reluctant or subject, primarily, to a slow legislation of the teleworking, and out of step with reality, but also subject to a wrong culture and partly very “Italian”, according to which clocking in and being physically in a place as the office for at least 8 hours a day, represents the proof of efficiency, decisively more important of the efficient achievement of the role results, with good quality edges and correct timing.
