New work and its origins
In the early 1980s, the anthropologist Frithjof Bergmann was looking for a way for unemployed skilled workers in the automotive industry to experience their work as meaningful and fulfilling again. He compared the work needs of individuals with the conditions offered by employers - and naturally found a huge discrepancy. So Bergmann asked himself the question: What do we need so that we don’t see work as an annoying way of earning money? But as something we want to do with all our heart?
From this question he developed the New Work model, which is based on three pillars:
- As activities are further automated, wage labour can be greatly reduced.
- Most of the goods we need in our daily lives should be able to be produced by new technologies without human intervention.
- With the time saved, people will be able to pursue activities that they find truly meaningful and therefore of their own free will.
So much for the theory. What companies are doing with it today is different, of course. Today, New Work is always associated with the digital world of work and stands for freedom, self-determination and the constant transformation of companies and their employees.
How New Work is being implemented today
What Bergmann has triggered with his theory is the social will for a working world that is oriented towards people’s needs - and not the other way round. The younger generations’ expectations of work are correspondingly high. The law of supply and demand is driving them even higher. Companies would therefore do well to rethink - and redesign - work.
Like this, for example:
1. flat hierarchies
New Work focuses on encouraging and demanding personal responsibility and empowerment from employees. At its heart is the idea that flat hierarchies enhance the empowerment of each individual in the organisation. Greater creative freedom creates opportunities for all employees and emphasises the value of each individual, regardless of their position. However, this freedom also comes with responsibility: employees must actively use their creative freedom, set their own goals and pursue them consistently. In an environment where there are fewer top-down directives, intrinsic motivation becomes the driving force - whether it is to perform or to complete training. With increasing autonomy, the need to motivate oneself to achieve goals increases.
According to self-determination theory, three conditions must be met for intrinsic motivation to develop:
- Autonomy, i.e. the independent organisation of learning and work according to individual needs.
- Competence, i.e. the experience of success in a domain
- Social integration, i.e. the feeling of belonging to a group
New Work, with its flat hierarchies, therefore requires more self-motivation through more freedom. On the other hand, the concept promotes motivation anyway, as it combines the three most important motivational factors.
2. flexible work
When people talk about “new work” today, they often mean digital nomadism: you can work from anywhere. Thanks to digitalisation, you are no longer tied to one place or fixed working hours, but you can shape these conditions to suit you. But flexible working doesn’t just mean that companies have to give their employees this kind of freedom. Conversely, skilled workers must also be prepared to work flexibly, for example, to take on ever-changing tasks through job rotation and to learn as they go. This leads to the next point.
3. employee learning as the basis for New Work
New Work can only work if both the organisation and its people are willing to develop. And that includes a willingness to learn. This is where the term “learning worker” comes from. This refers to employees who are able to learn new things independently and efficiently, while at the same time constantly improving the learning process itself. In principle, this is the basis for agile working, a concept that has emerged from the New Work concept, particularly in software development: employees learn with every experience and apply this knowledge in the next step to continuously improve quality and efficiency.
Learning in the sense of New Work therefore involves a high degree of personal responsibility, as does the work itself. This is why we need learning concepts that not only impart knowledge, but also increase the motivation to learn and improve the ability to learn.
4. focus on people, not products
New Work aims to make work not only more productive, but also more meaningful. After all, work exists for people - not the other way around. With this in mind, people are always at the centre of the work environment. This includes good working conditions, emotional appreciation and the mental hygiene of the individual employee. Of course, all this also has a positive effect on profitability: People who can organise their work in a relaxed and meaningful way work healthier, happier and better. Rather than ‘using up’ staff, they are encouraged and supported. And vice versa, they can support the company in the best possible way.
5. enthusiasm for innovation
With New Work comes not only a willingness to evolve where necessary. It also includes a natural curiosity and desire to innovate. New Work is creative, experimental and hands-on: instead of forging long concepts, things are simply done - and this leads to much more and much faster innovation. In turn, customers become more loyal to companies because they are constantly being offered good new products. For employees, this drive for innovation means a high demand for originality and practicality, but also a constructive culture of failure, where mistakes are a useful part of development.
6. diversity
New Work is not possible without diversity - because the high demand for flexibility and development can only be met with a correspondingly diverse and talented workforce. New employer branding strategies must therefore be developed to ensure this diversity in companies.
Where New Work reaches its limits
Of course, there are areas where demands such as flexible working hours, home offices, etc. cannot be met. This includes, for example, most social professions. As a teacher, I can’t just teach from home, any more than I can be a rubbish collector and decide when to pick up people’s rubbish. New work is a concept that has been adopted mainly by the digital industry - and therefore mainly by academics and highly educated people who work in an office.
However, there are certainly valuable things that other professional groups can take away from the New Work concept, namely
- Self-determination at work
- Co-creation of working conditions
- Focus on individuals and their needs
In this sense, New Work can ensure that work as a whole becomes more employee-friendly - and therefore more meaningful, easier and, yes, better.
Learning in the spirit of New Work
Innovation, flexibility, development, agile working and a learning workforce are all elements of New Work that emphasise learning. And for good reason: digitalisation and globalisation are driving constant change in all areas of society, including the world of work. For companies to keep pace, the ability to learn will become - or already is - the No. 1 skill. So we need not only new ways of working, but also the learning strategies and approaches that make them possible.
Learning and staying innovative with SAPERED
Even if the term “New Work” sounds a bit hackneyed by now, the new world of work is here and every company has to deal with the new demands of work and offer appropriate learning concepts. That’s why we’re here: to develop learning experiences that don’t focus on fast-food knowledge, but instead enable ‘aha’ experiences and increase the willingness to learn. Quite simply, because they always add real value to work, because they are fun and motivate people.
If you are interested, we look forward to talking to you. Arrange a no-obligation consultation now. We look forward to hearing from you!
