The year 1997-98 was marked by an increase in the number telework activities at all levels across Europe. These both reflected the growing importance of telework and were themselves instrumental in increasing understanding and beneficial take-up.
For more than four years, the European Commission has been actively pursuing a comprehensive policy designed to build the Information Society in Europe. Telecommunications policy naturally constitutes a central pillar of these efforts. Creating appropriate conditions for new business, providing continuous support for technology development and pilot projects, and raising public awareness have been other elements of this policy.
Telework has from the start been recognised as one of the main applications around which Europe should focus major activities in order exploit the changes confronting us. By making the best possible use of technology in our working lives and in conducting business we can create a competitive edge in today’s global market. Making the best use of technology to avoid unnecessary travel can contribute to a more sustainable world.
In order to ensure strong outreach to Europe’s citizens, DG XIII, in close collaboration with DG V and other Services of the Commission, has designed a European Telework Agenda as a series of key events spanning the spectrum of telework issues38. These include social, technology and policy areas, academic research, and events aimed at telework activists and practitioners. Taken as a whole, the synergy of these complementary events provides a coherent European thrust and character to the new ways of working debate and to the development of appropriate technology and services. In the following, events of the European Telework Agenda 1997-98, which have already taken place, are summarised. Forthcoming events are outlined in section 5.3 below.
This workshop followed the first international workshop, "From Telecommuting to the Virtual Organisation", held in London in the summer of 199639. Building on the results of this workshop, this second event had the theme "Building Actions on Ideas". It consisted of a series of four workgroups and culminated in a final day conference40.
As with the 1996 workshop, the Amsterdam ‘97 event was designed to provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion of key contemporary issues in teleworking. Although teleworking and telecommuting have existed since the mid 1970s and a lot of work has been done, much of the discussion still tends to churn over the same old issues. Many of the concepts and issues associated with teleworking in the early days have outgrown their original technological and economic context, suggesting the need for a different approach in a broader perspective. As a consequence, the centre of gravity of the teleworking debate seems too often to be trapped in the early 1980s. The workshop was therefore convened to help re-orientate the telework agenda, in particular by drawing together the latest conceptual, theoretical and empirical work of a multi-disciplinary group of researchers and academics, and the practical experiences and problems of practitioners and policy-makers.
As with London 1996, participants reflected the genuinely global interest in these issues. Papers were received from Europe, the USA, Japan, Canada and Australia, each one contributing to discussions in one of the following workgroups:
The final day of the conference enabled workgroup outcomes to be shared with a wider audience, including representatives from both public and private sector, and telework activists from all over Europe.
Conclusions of the workshop were, inter alia, a need for more attention to four sets of issues in telework:
The workshop also showcased interesting examples, both from the Netherlands and from an international context. The success of the workshop in exploring the many ramifications of telework laid the groundwork for a third event to be held in Helsinki, Finland, in September 1998, focusing on Telework Environments (see section 5.3. below).
An unseasonably warm Stockholm brought together about 460 participants from 19 countries (including Japan and the USA) for the 4th European Assembly of Telework and New Ways of Working. The Swedish perspective was evident through the emphasis on mobile communications and the social and labour market aspects of telework. In her welcoming address, Sweden's Minister of Transport, Communications and IT, Ines Uusmann, told how she, along with other cabinet ministers, telework regularly from home, a long way from the capital. Telework, she said, can give a great boost to the quality of life, particularly for those with families. The Swedish parliament is said to be one of the most 'wired' in the world.
There were two keynote speakers from the European Commission. Allan Larsson, Director-General of DG V (Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs), set the tone for the conference with a focus on the pace of change in technology, relating it to the span of working life:
Mr Larsson pointed out the skills gap that results from such rapid change. By 2005, only about 20% of the workforce will have had their education and initial training recently (within the past ten years); the remaining 80% have already completed their main education and training. This is the reason for the Commission's policy focus on Lifelong Learning.
Peter Johnston, head of Unit B in the European Commission's Directorate-General XIII (Telecommunications and Research) discussed the history and immediate future of telework, which is now in its third generation. He portrayed four generations:
The overall theme of the assembly was a pragmatic one - focusing on teleworking in practice. Telework applications and initiatives from all over Europe had been invited to register for the ‘European Top 100 Telework Cases’. In total, one hundred good practice cases from 16 European countries were selected and invited to participate at the conference. About 40 cases were presented and about 30 participated in the poster exhibition. All these were published at the web site42. Cases were presented and discussed in five parallel strands:
The aim of this session was to examine the advantages and disadvantages of telework arrangements for businesses and administrative organisations. Cases were presented where reduced costs, increased work productivity, enhanced flexibility, access to new markets, recruitment and staffing advantages have been the key rationales for introducing telework. The conclusion was that it often difficult to put plans into effect, but once they get started, telework brings essential gains to the organisation.
This session addressed social aspects and questions concerning work legislation, flexible work hours, work contracts, collective agreements between employers and unions, occupational health aspects, training requirements, etc. The unions' position on telework, complementary agreements on work regulation, and employees experiences of teleworking, were some of the cases presented in this session. Conclusions were that there is a need for better regulation of conditions between employees and employers if teleworking is to develop, and that a survey of the conditions under which the self-employed work is needed.
The aim of the session was to discuss the potential of teleworking for improving the quality of life of the individual and the quality of the environment. The cases presented focused on the reduction of time spent on commuting, energy savings, and reduced traffic chaos and pollution due to teleworking. Other cases highlighted the opportunities to achieve a better living environment, neighbourhood enrichment possibilities and new ways to create jobs in rural areas. A significant number of projects are being carried out in many of the sparsely-populated regions of Europe. This is encouraging, and in many cases telework could help create employment in these areas, but also for other disadvantaged groups. Common to all these projects was a need for funding over a long period of time if they are to be successful.
This session focused on visions and applications for the future. The latest technical solutions and innovative telework applications, such as mobile teleworking, working from trains and aircraft, and hotels and resort offices, were examined. Other cases were new technologies for making telework simpler, safer or cheaper. A number of projects were presented in which new technology is being used to improve cooperation between people working together in different places. Technology is constantly being improved, but it needs to become easier to handle if companies and users are to hazard making large investments in teleworking.
The final day of the conference included the youth perspective. Representatives from Sweden’s Youth Council for IT presented a well thought out vision of the future of work and society: mobility, networking, creating your own job, local/global, live in a small scale environment and work in a global one. Among their concerns:
Compared to earlier assemblies, the following perspectives came to the fore:
The Assembly clearly demonstrated that telework is about working productively freed from the constraints of time and place, whether work is undertaken for a large corporation (e.g. in virtual teams), as part of a small business network (e.g. in a virtual corporation), or as an individual sole trader working at home. A good teleworker can serve customers in remote markets by taking advantage of the new technologies and applying the skills of an online networker. Thanks to absorbing contributions and useful experiences, the assembly provided a comprehensive illumination of telework and strong support for proceeding towards a situation in which telework will become part of normal working.
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