What is Smart Working?

Smart Working is a business-focused approach to flexible working that delivers more efficiency and effectiveness in work organisation, service delivery and organisational agility, as well as benefits for working people.

Key features are management by results, a trust-based culture, high levels of autonomy, flexibility in the time and location of work, new tools and work environments, reduced reliance on physical resources and openness to continuing change.

Smart working vs:

• Teleworking/remote working
• Flexible working
• Hybrid working
• Agile working

• Work takes place at the most effective locations and at the most effective times
• Flexibility becomes the norm rather than the exception
• Everyone is in principle considered eligible for flexible working, without assumptions being made about people or roles
• Employees have more choice about where and when they work, subject to business considerations
• Space is allocated to activities, not to individuals and not on the basis of seniority
• The costs of doing work are reduced
• There is effective and appropriate use of technology
• Simplified collaboration and connectivity virtually everywhere means sharing information and working with others regardless of location
• The processes people are asked to work with are continuously challenged to make sure they are fit for purpose
• Managing performance focuses on results rather than presence
• Smart Working underpins and adds new dimensions to diversity and equality principles
• Employees have the opportunity to lead balanced and healthy lives
• Work has less impact on the environment.

Setting up a SW place

• Smart working as a way to offer new working environments, i.e. attractive and inspiring work environments to support new work styles.
• Traditional offices  vs. smart office environments.
• Benefits of creating smart working place.
• Desk-based tasks: the need for offices is less for ranks of workstations, and more for a mix of other functional spaces.
• Relevance of understanding the amount of space needed in the office and the mix of different kinds of spaces.
• Protocols for ensuring  that space-sharing works effectively.
• Creating activity-based work settings.
• Considering the needs of staff with disabilities.
• Clear desk policy.
• Booking system.
• Moving from paper-dependency to electronic-based working.
• Office space should be be prioritised for human interaction, not storage.
• The relevance of ergonomics of smart working.
• Managing noise impact and considering ‘soundscaping’ as a necessary feature of the smart working environment.
• Managing the needs and challenges of working outside the office.
• Workhubs.

• Why do we need SW tools and technologies?
• Which tools and technologies should you choose?

• SW should be considered as a normal way of working.
• It is relevant to find a proper balance between face-face interaction and virtual interaction.
• Constant training of employees should be a norm.
• It is important to consider the age groups of employees when implementing smart working.
• Employees should be encouraged to create a dedicated workspace free of distractions.
• Achieving expected work results is more relevant than place, time and manner of working. The importance of setting a KPI (key performance indicator).
• Employees should be stimulated to become knowledgeable workers able to search for relevant information and select/use proper technology.
• Need for keeping regular interaction with employees.
• Relevance of stimulating employees as well as managers to react quickly and be concise as much as possible.
• Maintaining sufficient focus on managing the risk in security challenges.
• The relevance of promoting/creating a healthy workplace.

Setting up the balance between SW and personal life is important and should be fostered by the organization by:

• Awareness-raising sessions for all levels of staff
• Specific training in Smart Working techniques for managers and teams
• The development of team charters or protocols to involve employees in designing and enforcing their own team arrangements for rolling out Smart Working practices
• Incorporating Smart Working techniques and principles in leadership development programmes and other relevant professional training
• Ensuring that recruitment policies support the development of a Smart Working workforce and culture
• Ensuring that performance management, reward and other people policies support the development of Smart Working.
• Importance of setting up a work schedule in order to balance the working time and free time of an employee.

Building a SW environment that enables employees’ wellbeing:

1. Evidence of a positive relationship between work flexibility, health and wellbeing.
2. Relevance of good business sense to take care of health and fitness of employees.
3. Promoting flexible working practices that can reduce absence and in particular reduce stress.
4. Option of remote working and online attendance at meetings is beneficial.
5. Two broad areas for promoting health and wellbeing through workplace facilities:

• providing wellbeing centres, fitness facilities and areas for relaxation;
• creating working environments for everyday work that maximise wellbeing.

6. Relevance of paying attention to acoustic and wider sensory environment.
7. Biophilia.
8. Putting noise in the right place.