In part one of this three-part series, we described “New Work” for the first time. Now let’s take a closer look at the individual theses or pillars of this new working concept.
One of the biggest steps in the direction of the “New Work” model was the possibility of working from home or working remotely. Both fall under the aspect of so-called work-life blending, which we have already described in more detail in part one. Another aspect that will increasingly arise is the so-called co-office or co-working. Having your own office space is expensive, and so-called co-working is intended to remedy this. Such solutions already exist in Vienna, where we have our premises. Freelancers have the opportunity to work effectively and creatively, WLAN, often also their own “café”, are provided and you get to talk to completely new people.
The “social business”
Social problems will be brought to the fore, and the responsibility for solving these problems will also involve companies in the future.
The meaning economy is not only one of the other key questions in the new work concept, it is also gaining more and more attention in society through digitization and automation.
We are talking about new dimensions of value creation, i.e. social added value, sustainability, human relations instead of human resource and coopetition (a creation of cooperation and competition) – such terms describe this guideline perfectly. People want to be able to recognize meaning in their work and work towards it, a new value concept emerges.
Recruitment and Marketing
Employer branding is one of the logical conclusions of the above points. The appearance of companies in all social media channels is becoming increasingly important. Reputation management automatically becomes part of employer branding, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook are just a few of the important platforms on which companies have to represent a balanced, well-maintained profile. The Chinese platform TikTok is also becoming more and more relevant, especially to increase the so-called traffic that is always talked about in online marketing.
Employment relationship
There is increasing talk of a gig economy in connection with “New Work”. A gig is understood to be working on individual projects or for limited periods. The fact that it is no longer considered desirable to climb a career ladder is now widespread. But even the opposite of this concept is increasingly losing interest among the two new generations. Job hopping, i.e. changing employers every few years for one’s own benefit, is not the goal here either. Skilled workers, increasingly freelancers, are to be hired for a short period of time in order to bring new expertise and other views on board. In this way, companies are offered a wide range of knowledge, in addition to long-standing employees.
Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular should benefit from this, as they can direct the energy and creativity of freelancers in a focused manner and align it with their goals.
In the third and last part, we will specifically discuss the changes within Coredat with regard to “New Work”, see what has already been implemented, what may become common practice and what is still planned for the future.
