TUNED - Trade Union ' s National and European Delegation EUPAE - European Public Administration Employers SECOND FOCUS GROUP: THE IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE Improving work-life balance: opportunities and risks coming from digitalization - madrid 29 may 2019 With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Content of the Presentation Research Methodology recap A short overview of the received Case Studies Major Trends influencing the world of work at public administrations What are the responses to these major Trends? Research limitations Initial Findings I-II-III. Key Success Factors Q and A 2 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Research Methodology Focus on the individual Review of existing knowledge ( Literature Review ) 2 Focus Group meetings (14 March Paris; 29 May Madrid ) Collection of Case studies + set of Interviews Data analysis Scope: 12 countries (Denmark, Estonia, Belgium, France, Germany, Romania, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal and Slovenia) Established a set of 9 criteria to select the case studies from the Member States 2 main project outputs: Field Study + Guideline Final conference on the 27th of September 2019 in Rome 3 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Overview of the Case Studies Collected 18 case studies from 12 EU countries (currently 10 focus countries + 2 "extra" countries): Romania (1), Belgium (1), Estonia (1), Germany (2), Ireland (1), Italy (4), Portugal (2), Spain (1), Slovenia (1), France (1), Austria (1), Czech Republic (2) The case studies are fulfilling the 9 criteria to differing levels (e.g coverage by gender criteria - information about gender take-up by only 4 case studies: BE, IE, IT, SI) Cases were discussed and distributed among the members of the project Steering Group Some of the examples : Teleworking (Slovenia, Portugal, Estonia, Romania), Agile Work (Italy), NoVo (Belgium), Action Plan on Gender Equality (Spain), Digitalisation and automation in Revenue (Ireland) ... 4 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Major Trends influencing the world of work at Public Administrations Factors of external context Social and Demographic factors (e.g talent war , consumption trends, gender, WLB , education) Environmental considerations (e.g climate change, commuting , CO2) National Digitalisation Strategies (e.g Danish Digital Strategy 2016-2020 ; e-Estonia ) Factors of internal context Technological factors and resources (e.g infrastructural capacity, ICT readiness) Individual preferences and characteristics of employees (e.g. perceptions about digitalisation improving work-life balance, public officials’ autonomy , or managers attitude towards new technologies) Organisational factors (modernisation, organisational learning, culture, trade-union presence and workers’ representation ) 5 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
What are the responses to these major Trends? Overall public service modernisation programmes; culture change initiatives (e.g Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Estonia) Work-life balance/HR initiatives (e.g flexible working policies, online education of mothers on leave) to improve employee wellbeing and attract and retain talent (i.e. Portugal, Czech Republic, Estonia) Legislation and/or Agreements led change (i.e. Italy, Slovenia) 6 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Research Limitations 6 case studies out of the 18 have been in place from 2018 , which shows the nature of digitalisation that keeps changing and evolving (most established case study is 13 years old - Belgium) 6 case studies out of the 18 were measured/assessed ; out of the 6 cases only 2 focused on work-life balance; in most cases, only anecdotal evidence exist currently It is a challenge to compare the gathered information and success factors of the case studies, therefore it is difficult to generalise results Specific nature of the scope of the research: both digitalisation and work-life balance are TOOLS and GOALS at the same time 7 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Initial findings I. - DIGI vs. WLB (positive or negative?) High level initial findings include: 7 out of the 18 case studies specifically Only 1 case study reports about the negative reported that their employees' work-life impact of digitalisation on employees' work-life balance was positively impacted by balance digitalisation - the remaining doesn't mention But, the research confirms that digitalisation The research confirms that digitalisation has contributes to the weakening of work-life the potential to increase workers autonomy boundaries and provide greater access to flexibility It reinforces the argument that digitalisation It also confirms that digitalisation may may lead to the isolation of teleworkers (2 cases) contribute to a decreased level of stress , and It reportedly contributes to digital stress and improved level of trust of staff towards longer working hours (reported by 2 case organisations studies) and interferes in privacy issues 8 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Initial findings II. - Opportunities Case studies (IE, RO) suggest that digitalisation can be particularly important for women as it can facilitate their job (re)entry and improve gender equality Case studies report about higher levels of commitment and job satisfaction as a result of digitalisation Digitalisation can also, reportedly, lead to reduced absenteeism and organisational operational costs The research also reinforces the arguments that digitalisation may lead to an increased level of productivity 9 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Initial findings III. -Risks/Challenges If work-life balance agreements or policies are not linked with digitalisation initiatives , this may lead to unexpected outcomes or frustration Digitalization requires new competencies from line managers in the absence of which even the most forward-looking initiatives might fail - only 7 case studies out of the 18 report about line manager training (question of resources and priorities) The research supports the view that digitalization primarily affects the work-life balance of employees at medium or higher hierarchical levels, lower level take up is necessary and must be encouraged to create sustainability The degree to which trade unions are involved in the planning and implementation of digitalisation related programmes might differ even in the case of one single initiative, which might lead to uneven implementation The study finds that digitalisation may improve the work-life balance of central government administration employees. Contextual as well as key success factors ( mediating factors) have a huge impact on the level of digitalisation and the work-life balance of employees. 10 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Key Success Factors 1) Trade union representatives involvement, including collective bargaining 2) Access to relevant training and earmarking budget for it 3) Pilot testing, active learning (continuous assessment including impact on health) 4) Digital readiness (e.g existence of an IT department, nr of available computers, internet connection) 5) Implementation (policies, performance, measuring, rules, culture, gender equality policy, working time rules) 6) Line manager’s skills, competence (e.g. leadership, emphatic skills, digitalisation skills) 7) Protection of workers’ privacy and data 8) Trust towards employees 11 | With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
Thank you for your attention! Any questions? Zoltan Vadkerti zv@worklifehub.com With the support of the European Union - VS / 2017 / 0370
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