Brave New Work?

How the workplace will change in the future

The rapid developments in technology are now part of everyday life. The changes they bring to the workplace are particularly drastic. New demands are being placed on companies, employees and workplace and working time models. These new concepts are summarized under the term New Work.

Open space offices and flexible working time models

Open space offices means: open offices without walls, but with comfortable armchairs, a feel-good atmosphere and a free choice of desk. Employees who work in the field or make use of the already widespread home office concept are no longer scheduled. New Work means here: Thanks to new technologies, employees are linked together from any location and can access shared databases.

Working time freedoms are also being granted more and more often. As long as the work is done, employees can come and go as they please. Employers hope that this will lead to happier, more motivated and therefore more creative employees.

They in turn benefit from the greater flexibility - family life or the next visit from a tradesman can be more easily integrated into the working day. The keyword is self-determination. This is definitely a positive factor for New Work.

Work-life balance vs. work-life blending

Many people are already familiar with the term work-life balance. The idea is that work and private life should be balanced in order to maintain the mental and physical health of employees. The completely different approach of work-life blending, on the other hand, describes the blurring of the boundaries between work and leisure. Through greater mobility and flexibility, the job is integrated into private life and vice versa. So what is New Work for us?

Swarming - Survival in a swarm

If you want to survive, you have to work with the best. An increasingly common model achieves just that. With interdisciplinary teams of internal and external experts, knowledge from different areas is brought together for the success of a joint project - this New Work approach is called swarming.

Such groups can also come together in virtual teams if geographical distance does not allow otherwise. This allows freelance workers to be active in several projects at different locations at the same time.

New technologies - a blessing and a curse

Flexibility and motivation - sounds great! However, work-life blending, multitasking and information overload are also associated with stress and excessive demands. New technologies are placing ever greater demands on companies and employees. Work processes, employee qualifications and working conditions must be continuously adapted.

However, new technologies in CRM software also provide solutions here: While work processes are becoming more concentrated, advancing developments in device and software links are enabling ever shorter paths, automation of routine activities and integration of individual work steps. This requires a certain amount of know-how, but also makes it easier to cope with the growing flood of information and keep up with the rapid pace.

This starts with the CRM app for smartphones with access to company-internal databases and does not end with more and more cross-software interfaces (the videos on CRM software provide a visual insight here).

With regard to the dangers of work-life blending, time limits on email forwarding, for example, can also provide a remedy - then the end of work is guaranteed after a certain time.

The future not only holds more and more training requirements and stress for the workplace, but also facilitation and organizational aids. The more intelligent technologies become, the more they can help us in our day-to-day work. The responsibility for providing training opportunities and enabling employees to take time off lies primarily with the companies themselves.