Work without going to the office half a day every week or twice a month. They call it “smart working” but in Italian it is also known as “lavoro agile”.
The novelty of this scheme resides in the fact that productivity will not be measured on time spent at the place of work.
Home working had already opened the way to new perspectives. But smart working is yet another step forward, as it structurally enhances staff autonomy and its ability to achieve objectives, innovating its relationship with the heads of staff, the team and the public.
The University of Trento took on the challenge right away and started a pilot phase to introduce smart working practices among the available working options several months ago.
In particular, on 660 staff members in total (including those with tasks that are not compatible with flexible working arrangements) the University already has 35 staff in home working positions and 63 in smart working. It opened 100 smart working positions for the pilot phase, on a limited number of days.
The University will monitor the pilot phase and has put in place a series of organizational steps to optimize the implementation of smart working, which is one of the instruments through which it aims to improve the efficiency of the organization.
To conclude, smart working is an instrument that will harmonize work and family life, to adjust the environment to the task to be performed, enhance the autonomy of individuals and the public administration and encourage them to give their best. Smart working may also provide support to an older workforce and their ageing issues.
The press release includes the views of Mario Depaoli, head of the Human Resources and Organization Directorate at UniTrento.