If Italians were CEOs of a company for one day, 74% of them would believe of primary importance to create a stable policy of flexible work and as many as 83% would give employees the technologies to work anywhere like in the office. The curious research, which simulates the strategy of a private citizen called to decide on new working dynamics, was conducted by Cisco on a sample of over 10.000 people in 12 countries, including Italy. The title of the study is Workforce of the Future and saw the triumph of smart working: according to Cisco, the new working paradigm, which before the pandemic was practiced by only 10% of Italians (today by almost 10 million workers, both public and private), has called into question the "usual habits” and given people a more active role.
Among the advantages most reported by the Italian interviewees stand out greater autonomy (65%), greater productivity (64%), but also the perception of being able to work well "in a team" even remotely thanks to the available technologies (66%). Even, contrary to the thesis that smart working would force a too sedentary life, 61% of Italians also stated that they were able to exercise more, despite the limitations. In short, a real cultural turning point that until a few months ago would have been unthinkable, given that in half of Italian companies flexible working was not even contemplated, as well as not allowed.
However, there is one aspect of smart working that is not entirely convincing to Italians: its absolutization. The practically exclusive use, for those who can, of flexible working is necessary in these months of health emergency, but in 2021 the interviewees imagine a different scenario. Thinking about what work will be like after the pandemic, 87% of workers said that would like to choose whether and how to work from home or in the office, with a mix of presence and distance and continuing to enjoy the benefits experienced, despite everything, in recent months.
In order to create this "new world" of work, according to Italian workers, their companies should give priority in 2021 to technology investments that allow you to be more productive (42%); to equip offices with technologies that make work spaces safer from a health point of view (31%); but also to increase the training for the development of digital skills (30%) and to increase information security (29%): essential data, the latter, to fully exploit the potential of collaboration solutions and other applications for remote work.
“By scrolling through the research data – he commented the CEO of Cisco Italy Agostino Santoni -, I was struck by the fact that although expectations are very high, not everyone has faith in their acceptance: 41% of workers think that their employer, after the pandemic, will not adopt a hybrid work organization, and 33% do not can answer about it. The interviewees tell us about important benefits, the desire for autonomy, to be protagonists of their work: Italian companies they have a duty to listen to these needs and to transform the experience of the emergency into an opportunity for the future, with a profound cultural change. With the right technologies, with the necessary skills, with trust, the world of work can be changed by really putting people at the center so that they are more satisfied and productive".
