“It makes no sense for a company to make false promises to employees,” said Sandra Bascha, Head of Communications at New Work SE in Austria, at the Digital Talks of OÖN and Sparkasse Oberösterreich. New Work SE, which is based in Hamburg and has its Austrian headquarters in Vienna, brings together brands such as Xing and kununu under one roof. The digital talk to look up:
Especially now, in times of the pandemic, companies need to “be clear about what they stand for as a company,” said Bascha. According to a recent study by New Work SE, a quarter of employees question the meaning of their job. In addition, the demands have changed fundamentally as a result of digitization. About 45 percent of employees would reject a job that does not have flexible working hours. According to Bascha, every third person states that a job without the possibility of working from home is no longer an option. “This effect will also outlast the pandemic,” says the communications expert.
From boss to team player
But not only the attitude of employees, but also the role of managers is changing. “Those who delegate and control are obsolete,” says Bascha. From the point of view of a boss, three points are important: to inspire and motivate employees, to communicate more with the workforce and to reflect on themselves regularly. Managers would have to gradually move away from the traditional understanding of the profession and slip more into the role of a team player.
No farewell to the office
According to Bascha, this also has to do with the culture that is lived in the company. This starts with the office space, goes through the recruitment process and extends to the top of the company. “People should come to the fore,” said Bascha.
In contrast to many other industry experts, the communications expert is not yet rejecting the future of the classic office. An office is a “mirror of corporate culture, a place where you don’t always have to go, you want to go”. The increasing demand for home office will not change that.
But the office will change. At New Work SE in Vienna, for example, a parent-child office was recently built on the initiative of employees to make work easier for employees with children. In addition, the company has created the option of free choice of seating and various retreat rooms. This promotes social and cultural exchange, said Bascha. (ika)
Source: Nachrichten
