The massive use of smart working to cope with the coronavirus emergency may prove to be a great opportunity for the work industry. There are numerous benefits that companies and employees can discover through this form of working which puts trust at the heart of the relationship between the parties.
Before the coronavirus emergency, 570.000 people worked from home in Italy, i.e. only 2% of employees, compared to 20.2% in the United Kingdom, 16.6% in France and 8.6% in Germany. The Ministry of Labour informs us, however, that after the outbreak of the pandemic, in just two weeks, 554,754 workers started working from home. This figure is set to rise by the day, with leading telephone companies reporting that data traffic on fixed lines has increased by an average of 20%, with peaks of 50%.
At the end of the day, this is the biggest remote working experiment ever implemented in our country!
Agile working or teleworking
The current legislation on smart working (Law No. 81 of 22 May 2017 – also known as the Law on Agile Working) provides for and regulates two possibilities: so-called “agile working” or teleworking. In the first case, the worker can choose days when he/she does not go to the office, working wherever he/she wants with the aim of producing a certain result in a certain period of time. Teleworking, on the other hand, is a choice made at the outset: in this case, the worker always acts from home and must be connected throughout office hours. The employer provides the hardware and, the more scrupulous, carry out a series of checks on the housing requirements.
Lo smart working in IT Solution
Even before the DPCM dated 9 March 2020, the IT solution team also felt it was appropriate to apply restrictions to protect colleagues and customers.
We have chosen to act responsibly by taking advantage of good connectivity and state-of-the-art technologies that allow us to remain operational and continue to provide our ICT service and support.
Thanks to the technology used on a daily basis, our telephone switchboard is also in operation. The customer who tries to contact our offices will receive a response exactly as if we were there. The customer service girls are remotely connected and are available for any request. Similarly, the technicians are also working remotely, so that right now you can appreciate their work and effectiveness even more.
Giorgia from customer service
Personally, I have been working with the IT solution team for a few months. This new work experience is giving me an insight into the IT world, of which most of us (myself included) have a superficial knowledge. I never imagined that I would have to cope with the emergency and manage the work from home.
I won’t hide the fact that Smart Working is initially destabilising, even more so if (as in the case of this emergency) it has been imposed on us, but after a week of working from home I can’t help but highlight its positive and productive aspects. First of all, I save travelling time between home and office, the stress of uncomfortable journeys or traffic jams, I can manage my time better by working without rigid time constraints and with more flexibility in managing my private life. Working in your own home also allows you to organise your workstation freely and to work in a familiar, tailor-made environment. Obviously, one has to be able to keep work and family time separate, avoid constant distractions and interruptions while working, and at the same time avoid being absorbed by professional concerns during the time when one should be concentrating on the family.
By finding the right balance, quality of life improves significantly and with it productivity and job satisfaction.
There is no doubt that all this is changing our lives in some way and in the long run it could have further positive turning points.
The ‘smart’ turn could be a great opportunity for workers and companies to grow. As a matter of fact, the smart worker would not only not pose any problems from a space-time point of view, but would also work in a much better work-life balance, with the advantage for companies of a clear reduction in costs. Up-to-date knowledge of the means available and greater autonomy of work could lead to a new-found dynamism in production, as well as optimisation of time and collaboration with the team.
Giorgia Previati
Customer service IT solution