New Work and IT: a recipe for success?

The working world that established itself over decades had already been losing its appeal and its hold on employees well before the pandemic broke out.
As digitalisation worked its way into every area of working life, structures that had been stuck for years changed radically.
With New Work, a philosophy has entered the working world that redefines how work and life fit together.

New Work: the idea

The New Work idea goes back to Frithjof H. Bergmann, a social scientist and philosopher who formulated a new and altered working world as a counterpoint to traditional capitalism. In his view employees should be granted the greatest possible individual freedom. The choice of what kind of work to do, where to do it and when is therefore entirely theirs.

The IT sector, still a fairly young branch that began in the 1960s and 1970s, looks particularly well suited to this philosophy. A mix of home office, freely arranged hours and decentralised teamwork lets employees build a working and personal life with a degree of freedom, self-determination and self-realisation that was unknown until recently.

New Work: the values

In defining New Work, Frithjof H. Bergmann set out core values: independence, freedom and participation in the community.

Independence

Employees should be granted a high degree of personal responsibility and independence. That covers deciding how much workload they can handle and which assignments and tasks they take on, as well as choosing the place and the timeframe in which the work is to be done.

Freedom

Deciding to work independently gives employees a great deal of freedom. It is no longer necessary to spend eight hours at fixed times in an office or plant as the one place work can happen. A lot of work can be done from home or from places people choose for themselves. Video conferencing tools such as MS Teams and co-working apps such as Trello or Stackfield make it possible, as do the ongoing digitalisation of business processes, paperless working and Industry 4.0.

Participation in the community, or the lone fighter at home?

The New Work principle does not rely on the home office alone as the alternative to the office. Employees should not turn into isolated lone fighters working through their tasks by themselves. Because every project, and agile methods in particular, has phases where working together in person cannot be replaced, the IT sector in particular has taken to using co-working spaces for stretches at a time. Unlike the classic workstation in an open-plan office, a co-working space gives employees a place with real creative potential for the phases when physical presence is needed, somewhere ideas can be developed and project stages agreed together.

New Work and IT

The IT sector looks structurally ideal for the New Work model. The tasks of a software developer, an infrastructure administrator or an ERP consultant can be handled practically anywhere, thanks to powerful laptops and tablets. Access to virtualised servers and databases and a heightened awareness of IT security make it work.
As executive search consultants we already see today that IT companies are only attractive to top talent if they guarantee their people individually configured, up-to-date hardware and software along with the greatest possible freedom and self-determination over working hours and location. Uncomplicated home office arrangements and office spaces designed to encourage creativity and communication, while still supporting both individuality and team spirit, are part of that. Anyone who wants to win the best talent in future will not get past New Work.