Teleworking is slowly increasing in Germany. However, potential teleworkers and their employers may still face considerable uncertainties.
A number of companies are running successful teleworking pilots, with staff generally engaged in 'alternating' telework (in other words, working partly from home, but partly from the workplace). IBM Deutschland signed a pioneering works council agreement on teleworking from 'external workplaces' in 1991 (revised 1992), which has been an influential model for companies and trade union bodies both elsewhere in Germany and more widely in Europe. This agreement protected teleworkers' employment status and covered, among other things, issues such as working hours, reimbursement of costs incurred at home and supervision procedures.
Similar collective agreements are in force at, for example, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, and the insurance company LVM. Other German companies which have telework programmes include Integrata, Dresdner Bank, GRZ, and two other insurers Allianz and Württembbergische Versicherung.
| Schwäbisch Hall AG As a leading private building society, Schwäbisch Hall AG has branches worldwide. 59% of the employees are female, and 24% of the employees work part time. In contrast to some examples, the introduction of telework in Schwäbisch Hall has lead to clear advantages for employees. Telework was introduced not because of problems with shortage of space, traffic congestion or the cost of offices, but instead in order to retain qualified employees and keep their know-how. As a result, the company now has a good supply of qualified personnel in order to ensure continuous high quality and effective work, even in periods of labour shortage and similar bottlenecks. |
A recent study of 272 companies in the state of Nordrheinland-Westfalia found that 20% were claiming to have teleworking employees, mostly engaged in alternative home/office working. Smaller numbers were operating from satellite offices or neighbourhood offices. However, telecentres, or telehaus, are not very common. The study suggested that there are currently about 2,000 teleworkers within these firms, with a further 1,200 places actively being planned26.
Nordrheinland-Westfalia is one of a number of German Länder with an interest in promoting telework. In Bavaria, teleworking is being encouraged in the BayernOnline initiative27. Another interesting local telework initiative is currently under way in Schleswig-Holstein28. At the federal level, the German information society initiative, the Informationsgesellschaft Deutschland (IID)29, was launched in 1996 by the Ministry of Economics.
| Bönders GmbH With 140 employees (about 40 employees work in the administration) and 7 branches in Germany, Bönders GmbH is a medium sized forwarding agency, which develops intelligent logistics concepts for the chemical, construction and textile industries. In 1993/94 Bönders was faced with a decision of whether or not to purchase a new server to meet the increasing needs of electronic operations. A 180% overload on the present server resulted in delays and long periods of idleness. Instead of purchasing a new server, telework was introduced resulting in optimal utilisation of the existing one for more than 8 hours per day. About 7 employees welcomed the opportunity to work at home, as they live about 60 km away from the office. Teleworking now accounts for about 30% to 40% of total working hours. Savings from not purchasing a new server, an increase of productivity by between 10% to 15%, as well as an improvement in internal organisational cohesion, are some of the advantages the management of Bönders GmbH have achieved through telework. |
Berlin was the centre for a major international conference on teleworking in June 1997, and the increase in interest in the issue can be judged from the launch in April 1997 of a new bi-monthly telework magazine, Teleworx. There is considerable interest in establishing a federal-wide Telework Association.
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