The new work organisations that are shaping the company of tomorrow

Telecommuting, full remote, flex office, desk sharing, corpoworking, freelance administration, 4-day week: are these new ways of organising work revolutionising the world of work, or are they just passing trends?

While this is a legitimate question, it turns out that these alternative ways of working are logical responses to people's changing needs and desires, particularly those of the younger generation:

• more autonomy
• more flexibility
• more mobility
• and more meaning.

The health crisis of 2020 has considerably accelerated the adoption of these new ways of working, perhaps for the long term?

Find out how these new forms of work organisation work , and what the benefits are for your company and your employees.

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Teleworking: towards normalisation

As a result of the health crisis, everyone has, willingly or unwillingly, tried out or heard about teleworking, a form of organisation that allows people to spend their working day away from company premises.

While teleworking was already part of the culture of some companies before the arrival of Covid-19, for many it was a novelty to introduce it.

Even today, some companies remain 100% teleworking until the situation improves, while others have opted for a hybrid working model combining teleworking and face-to-face work.

👍 The benefits of teleworking

For employees :

• less time spent travelling,
• greater organisational autonomy
• better concentration,
• less stress and fatigue.

For the company :

• possibility of switching to a flex office and making savings,
• reduced absenteeism,
• increased productivity and employee commitment,
• improved employer brand.

👎 The risks of teleworking

For employees :

• Unsuitable workstations that damage health,
• working environment that is not conducive to concentration (pets, family, work, etc.),
• risk of isolation.

For the company:

• increased risks linked to cyber security,
• difficulty communicating with employees,
• investment in tools.

💡 Some advice

• Set up moments to connect and exchange,
• equip yourself with the right collaborative tools,
• organise the transition.

Full remote: teleworking taken to the extreme

Full remote working is when 100% of working time is spent away from a company's premises.

A distinction is made between

• temporary full remote, as is currently the case with the health crisis ;
• full remote for certain employees only, with the rest of the workforce working in the offices;
• full remote as the organisational standard for a company, meaning that all employees are away from the premises, often going hand in hand with the total elimination of premises.

👍 The benefits of full remote

For employees :

• elimination of constraints and time spent in transport,
• autonomy in time management,
• freedom of movement,
• increased well-being.

For the company :

• savings made by reducing or closing offices,
• more fulfilled, autonomous and productive employees.

👎 The risks of full remote working

For employees:

• the boundary between work and personal life can become blurred,
• reduced social interaction between colleagues
• isolation can lead to a certain malaise.

For the company :

• risk of losing the link,
• for some employees.

Desk sharing: employees without a fixed desk

Desk sharing is the practice of not allocating a desk to employees, who choose where to set up when they arrive in the morning.

This practice has emerged in consultancies and companies where many employees are on the move, leaving offices unoccupied most of the time. At a time when property prices are increasingly high, providing an office for each member of staff when the number of employees is never the same is a serious problem.At a time when property prices are increasingly high, providing an office for each employee, when the workforce is never 100% present on the same day, was a poor use of space and associated costs.

Today, with the spread of teleworking and the emergence of new ways of working (no more meetings, project-based working, etc.), desk sharing is being adopted more and more by companies, as the occupancy rate of premises decreases year on year.

In the Paris region, it is estimated that the office occupancy rate will have fallen from 50% to 60% by 2020, compared with 80% just a few years ago.

The culture of hierarchy and the privilege of the office is also tending to disappear. Employees, managers and directors now work in the same space.

💡 Desk sharing can also refer to the sub-letting of an unoccupied part of the office to one or more other companies in order to pool costs.

👍 The benefits of desk sharing

For employees :

• easier work exchanges,
• links are forged with other teams.

For the company :

• financial savings due to space savings,
• encouraging collaborative working,
• a stronger corporate spirit.

👎 The risks of desk sharing

For employees :

• loss of reference points,
• transporting equipment if there are no lockers.

Flex office: bringing flexibility into the office

The flex office is a flexible way of organising workspace and, consequently, working methods.

The aim? To adapt more easily to the needs and uses of employees by :

• Eliminating the need to own an office, as with desk sharing,
• while at the same time providing different types of space that everyone can use according to their needs... or their desires.

Why is the flex office worthwhile?

In a typical week, employees generally have several types of needs to meet in order to carry out their various tasks:

• moments of calm and concentration when they need to produce, for example, writing an article, coding a feature or creating an interface mock-up) ;
• moments of creativity and collaboration with other people to innovate, generate new ideas, etc. ;
• telephone calls with an external party, a customer or a service provider, which require you to isolate yourself so that you can hear the caller and not disturb others;
• informal discussions during lunch breaks.

Ultimately, it's a financial optimisation of space that takes into account the well-being of employees, and a response to the difficulty of planning for the appropriation of workspaces by employees.

💡 We can even extend the notion of flex office to the fact of being able to occupy different workspaces (coworking, teleworking from home, café, office, etc.).

👍 The benefits of flex office

For employees :

• spaces adapted to their needs,
• frequent changes of environment can stimulate well-being and creativity.

For the company :

• encouraging collaboration and creativity for greater innovation,
• adapted to project mode,
• greater productivity.

👎 The risks of the flex office

For employees :

• the loss of a personalised space,
• inability to find a place in the space they want,
• transporting equipment if there is no locker available.

For the company :

• resistance to change, which sometimes makes it complicated to implement.

💡 Here are a few tips for implementing the system:

• conduct a change management process in due form,
• include employees in the planning process,
• get professional help.

Freelance administration: the advantages of salaried employment and entrepreneurship

Freelance administration is a hybrid form of employment, halfway between salaried employment and entrepreneurship.

Here's how it works:

• the contractor finds an assignment with a client and sets the fee, without having to create a self-employed status or a company,
• they sign an employment contract (fixed-term or open-ended) with a "portage" company,
• The company takes care of all the administrative formalities with the client company (invoicing, insurance, terms and conditions of the service contract, etc.),
• the freelancer carries out the assignment independently, enjoying all the benefits of the contract (payslip, health insurance, works council, luncheon vouchers, etc.).

The use of freelance administration is set to increase dramatically over the next few years, given the number of new freelancers arriving each year.

Over the last 10 years, the number of people working on a freelance basis has risen by 145%... and it's not going to stop any time soon.

👍 The advantages of freelance administration

For employees :

• you can work independently,
• while still enjoying the benefits of salaried employment,
• a more stable situation that allows them to qualify for unemployment benefit or access credit more easily.

For the client company :

• no payroll taxes to pay
• flexibility of work depending on the activity (as with temporary work).

👎 The risks of freelance administration

For employees :

• fees payable to the freelance administration company,
• sometimes a minimum turnover is required,
• the need to find assignments yourself.

Corpoworking: a coworking space in the office

Corpoworking, for corporate and coworking, is the setting up of a workspace modelled on a coworking space within a company.

Here are the codes borrowed from coworking:

• the emphasis on sharing and collaboration,
• access to outside contributors,
• facilities that promote comfort, well-being, conviviality and creativity,
• hosting events and workshops.

👍 The benefits of corpoworking

For employees :

• creates social links,
• breaks the daily routine,
• stimulates creativity,
• offers learning opportunities.

For the company :

• Work on the employer brand,
• bring unused space to life,
• encourage collective intelligence and innovation,
• an ideal place to launch a project and practice brainstorming.

👎 The disadvantages of corpoworking

• requires the necessary space,
• represents an investment,
• poses a risk to confidentiality,
• needs to be managed and run.

The 4-day week: a 180° turnaround

Working 4 days a week and keeping your salary: a utopia? And yet some companies that have taken the plunge don't seem to want to go back, given the positive impact on employee well-being and productivity.

According to a study by ADP, 50% of French people questioned would rather work longer, but over 4 days, than over 5 days.

How do these companies organise themselves? Here are a few examples:

• Reducing working hours to 6 hours a day,
• working 32 hours a week over 4 days (as LDLC does, for example),
• working 35 hours a week over 4 days
• offering Fridays for a few months of the year (the Love radius company does this from May to August), etc.

💡 The 4-day week does not necessarily mean closing the business one day a week. Quite often, a rotation is carried out between employees to ensure continuity of service.

👍 The benefits of the 4-day week

For employees :

• Responds to a real need for flexibility and time for oneself,
• contributes to well-being.

For the company :

• helps combat presenteeism,
• an increase in productivity (Microsoft in Japan saw its productivity rise by 40% after giving employees their Friday).

👎 The risks of the 4-day week

For employees:

• if the day is longer, it may not suit everyone's schedule (for example, if children need to be picked up from school).

For the company :

• requires a rethink of the entire organisation to ensure rotation.

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Management needs to adapt to new ways of working

These new ways of organising work are revolutionising the way we perceive work and the way we do it, embodying values that are increasingly important to employees, particularly the younger generations.

Their implementation has been made possible by the digitalisation of companies, but not exclusively. In fact, reorganising a company without rethinking management to adapt it considerably increases the risk of failure.

The introduction of these new ways of organising work removes a certain amount of rigidity, while at the same time giving employees a framework within which they can :

• become more autonomous
• take the initiative
• develop their potential,
• develop their skills,
• unleash their creativity, etc.

Rather than giving in to the temptation to spy on your employees remotely to check that they are actually working their hours, build a relationship based on trust by giving them objectives, while letting them organise themselves to achieve them. Make sure they are equipped with all the skills and tools they need.

This type of participative management, or empowerment of employees, makes it possible to reconcile growth and well-being at work:

• by releasing potential,
• by innovating
• and being ever more agile.

Indeed, in an increasingly uncertain environment, it's generally the companies that show the greatest agility that come out on top.

And what about you? Have you already adopted a new form of work organisation? If so, what did you put in place and did it work?