What happens afterwards? Drawing on successful outcomes to build new work organisation

After several weeks during which teleworking became the norm for all those who were not imperatively required to attend their workplace, the various economic sectors are arranging for the resumption of on-site working. How can office life be recast by factoring in adaptations and learning from the challenges that were faced?

According to the most-recent World Bank survey, public administrations in 136 countries have had massive recourse to home-based work. These unprecedented circumstances have highlighted real differences both in terms of the level of equipment and the expansion of infrastructure, and as regards getting used to working differently.  

Logistics departments and management will be deeply involved in doing everything to ensure that the work spaces earmarked for employees are safe whilst rekindling collective momentum. The experiments or initiatives conducted could represent potential solutions for tomorrow’s organisational structures.  

Certain countries, such as the Netherlands or Finland, are already well ahead of the pack and have announced plans to mainstream teleworking so that more employees are eligible by making regulations more flexible, as is the case in France. With work schedule rotation (in South Africa, Croatia, Spain and Italy), discussions are ongoing to introduce a permanent combined model with equal time allocation which has benefits in terms of premises’ occupancy management. In Ireland, the government is even considering maintaining the current arrangements on a voluntary basis for all positions that, after an assessment, are shown to have ensured continuity of service with the same performance levels.

A few government departments (the Department of Finance in Australia or the Federal Public Service - Social Security in Belgium) had already upended habits by introducing a clean-desk strategy to streamline space: no more offices allocated to individuals but interchangeable spaces used according to flows and which have to be left empty. Although, besides the financial angle, this option could be one of the answers to the new health constraints, it is still unpopular with civil servants. But, why not push the idea of workplaces being spaces for sharing and creativity?

The multiple innovations rolled out during the crisis testified to the responsiveness of public services. The OECD is strongly inciting its Member countries to standardise and enhance their approaches:

• Specific public service job exchanges to foster internal recruitment and the reassignment of staff through skills sharing (in Austria and Canada)

• Online meetings leading to a marked reduction in travelling (in Germany and Sweden)

• Remote training resources using cutting-edge technologies (in Denmark and the United Kingdom)

 • Team management in agile mode based on trust and acknowledgement of the outcomes achieved (in the United States and Norway)

There is no doubt that this last factor will be the cornerstone for the organisational changes that are required.  Drawing on the initiatives introduced, it will play an active part in implementation of the provisions of the Recommendation of the Council on Public Service Leadership and Capability, which was adopted in January 2019.

Nevertheless, nothing should be done without taking feedback from all the stakeholders into account. The “Bureaucracy Lab” initiative, in conjunction with a consortium of three universities (1), has prepared a survey framework, which is available to all countries to gather the impressions of all public officials. This information will be highly useful for decision-makers.

¹ "Global Survey of Public Servants" conducted by University College London, Nottingham University and Stanford University.