The Digital Workplace: skills for a changing work environment

At the end of November 2017, the Digital Workplace project has reached its end. The project ran for two years, funded under the European Commission’s Erasmus+ VET, by a consortium of 6 organizations from 5 EU countries: ARES (Italy) lead partner, GAIA and TELEFONICA (Spain), DEKRA (Germany), Hellenic Open University (Greece) e INNOVENTUM (Finland). The overall objective of the project was to promote the adoption of an innovative, highly effective and productive organizational model of work based on performance and results, not on timetable and control. We called it Digital Workplace because we put the emphasis on the technological environment that enables, today, a totally different approach to work: work is not a place anymore, but a capacity supported by technologies. During our two years journey together, we made researches, processed data, created training programmes, met very interesting people, had and solved problems, visited nice places, tested the training developed and compared different work cultures and approaches. We learnt a lot. We, above all, learnt that innovation is a hard job and that many things have to be ready for an in-depth innovation process – like the one we proposed - to be implemented with success. Now we know that Digital – or remote, or smart, or etc. (it can have many different names) – work is not a panacea, nor it can be applied to everyone in every kind of situation. It is based on mutual trust between employer and employee, actual sharing of common goals, and the possession of a series of soft and technical skills. There is no place for anxiety of control or fear of isolation, if the process is properly shaped. Instead, there is much room for a better quality of life, more creativity and productivity, less pollution and waste of time in the traffic jam. Definitely, if properly “built”, a Digital Workplace can be a really good “place” to stay. To support this transformation process, we developed and tested a series of tools: on the basis of a preliminary research with 110 respondents, we drafted two complementary training programmes, for employers and employees, that have been tested during three trials in Spain, Germany and Italy by 24 trainers specifically trained during a training week in Italy as “Digital Workplace Experts”. The trials involved 76 people (trainers, entrepreneurs, managers, workers). The training programmes were structured in a MOOC format, following the most accredited principles of Instructional Design. Competences acquired and/or already possessed were certified via a special Open Badge, designed and issued in collaboration with BESTR, the most important badge issuer in Italy. Through targeted events and tools – multiplier events, newletters, communication campaign with media and social media – we informed over 2000 people about the project and the opportunities of organizational innovation supported by technology. Finally, a policy paper summarized in “ten commandments plus one” the most important lessons we learnt, with the aim of helping other people and organizations interested in the Digital Workplace. All project products - and much more - are available on the project web platform digitalworkplace.education.