Over the past two years, the concept of work has changed profoundly. As it influenced social relationships and changed how we work, the pandemic drove people to reconsider their priorities and focus increasingly on their overall wellbeing.
According to the Randstad Workmonitor, an annual survey that in 2022 involved 35,000 professionals in 34 countries, Italy included, "in the post-pandemic era, happiness at work is a priority for many." The study shows that, at the global level, 58% of people say that they would not accept a job that might negatively influence their work-life balance, and 34% state that they left a job because it made their private lives more complicated. Flexibility is thus becoming essential to modern professionals in terms of both hours and place of work.
However, people are challenging not only the rigidity traditionally associated with the workplace, with pre-established hours and places to do one's job, but also the concept of work as a separate sphere from private life and not an integral part of it.
Starting with the youngest generations, there is a growing need to identify with one's work because, as underscored by the Randstad Workmonitor, "Regardless of whether an employee is at a deskless job, is in front of a computer screen all day or remotely interacts with customers, work is essential to their sense of self."
It is, therefore, not a matter of simply reconciling private and professional life but also of feeling engaged in one's work, sharing the goals of one's company, and believing in its values.
At Dedagroup, we firmly believe that work is a fundamental part of a person's identity. Accordingly, with the launch of the Agile Work project, which began in Italy in early 2021, we embarked on a much broader process of cultural renewal within the Group, starting with how Deda People see, play, and interpret their roles, as both people and professionals.
We are working on building a Dedagroup based on trust, flexibility, and a sense of responsibility, and by permanently changing how we experience the company and enhancing our sense of diffused leadership, agile work continues to evolve and help achieve this goal.
Since its launch, the project has also developed based on a shared feeling through surveys involving our people, who have expressed a desire to start and then continue, consolidate and further improve this new approach to work life, which has now been embraced by over 90% of Deda People.
Accordingly, after the initial phases, in which we worked on setting up agile work by providing access to cutting-edge tools and formulating and sharing methods (e.g., the ability to choose flexibly how many days to work remotely), we are now committed to spreading a full-fledged culture of hybrid work.
To do so, we began by reorganizing workspaces, setting up "collaborative" areas and workstations for in-presence activities to be booked via a dedicated application, which we made available to all our people, regardless of where they are based. Today, all Deda People can thus choose a workstation at any Deda location, as needed. In 2021, we also launched a project to rethink our spaces: this is a work in progress based on the conviction that the workplace must be a place to cooperate, socialize, make connections, learn, feel at ease and identify themselves. We are giving concrete form to these concepts in our new offices, which are becoming well-lighted, airy, colorful places that foster sharing and dialog.
Work is indeed identity, but it also bases on relationships. Creating and managing relationships with colleagues, customers, and stakeholders is essential to building professionalism. Still, it is also one of the aspects under the greatest strain due to remote work in recent years. Together with our partner Variazioni — a leader in developing processes to support change management and the adoption of agile work — we thus worked on a training path designed to support the cultural change within the Group by helping Deda People to make the most of the various needs and situations that remote and in-presence work bring. This full-fledged e-learning training course aims to consolidate and improve the approach adopted, refining three soft skills fundamental to efficient, healthy, and sustainable remote work: the ability to organize and self-organize, diffused leadership, and effective, transparent communication.
This process concerns our people's need to strike a new balance in how they live their company and work lives. This is the only way everyone can genuinely develop their full potential. Accordingly, at Dedagroup, we are committed to providing tools and spaces and supporting skills development.
This goal led us to participate in the SWAP Lab (the acronym in Italian stands for agile
working, company welfare, and organizational participation) at the Cattolica University
of Milan. This project,
which involves 13 companies of various sizes, sectors, cultures, and origins,
aims to analyze agile work and the topic of company welfare within the
framework of organizational participation, to face the ongoing changes in the
work world with an innovative, proactive approach.
Yet, that's not all. We are convinced that personal engagement is indissolubly linked to sharing the values people find in their organizations and to continuous training and expanding skills and tasks. Our constant learning system, (Y)Our Dedagroup Training & Culture, is intended to do precisely this: providing the entire company population with the opportunity never to stop, to continue to receive training, and grow professionally This training is not an end unto itself but a driver of innovation that steers our strategic choices and lays the foundation for the joint creation of a business model focused on people. To build excellence and design the Dedagroup of the future.
