For years we have been discussing the demands that a changing world places on work: it should be interdisciplinary, cross-team and cross-departmental, open and collaborative, and preferably agile and experimental. But we almost always talk about office work. But what about people working in manufacturing, on construction sites and elsewhere? There, too, knowledge sharing and collaboration are more important than ever. Christoph Pause and his guests discussed these issues. Christoph Pause and his guests addressed these questions at the first Work Culture Festival in October 2024 as part of ORGATEC.
In the panel discussion on the boardroom stage, it became clear that there are many ways to give employees more autonomy and more flexible working arrangements outside the office. Measures at RWE Offshore Wind and the ÖBB Infrastructure Group range from the ability to switch between full-time and part-time work to job-sharing and the combination of longer blocks of work and leisure time. RWE is increasingly using periods of bad weather, when installation on the high seas is not possible, to empower its employees. For breaks and work interruptions, RWE ships have lounges with a living room atmosphere, but also equipped with a flip chart. The panelists also described the first interesting approaches to involving employees in decision-making processes. It is an important task for the company to expand this, at least in non-safety-related areas.
Photo: © IBA
