Working world of the future: The road is still long
Around 160 executives and entrepreneurs attended the Business Forum Olten on September 4, 2019. Organized by the School of Business at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), the theme of this year's event was "Corporate success thanks to change and stability".
Both the keynote speeches of the main program and the practice-oriented breakout sessions were essentially devoted to the various facets of digitization. The "working world of the future" and its successful design was also the focus of a breakout session and met with lively interest, with a total of around 100 participants in both sessions.
The breakout session provided initial insights into the largest study to date in Switzerland on "Working World 4.0" with 1140 participants, two-thirds of whom were from SMEs and one-third from large companies (JVs). The study was published by Prof. Dr. Marc K. Peter, Head of Competence Center for Digital Transformation at the FHNW Hochschule für Wirtschaft, in collaboration with the Future Work Group.
High time to act
At the heart of the study are the three dimensions "People - Place - Technology," whose meaningful and effective interplay is what the study's authors believe will determine the successful design of the working world of the future. With this in mind, a catalog of questions was drawn up and the survey conducted in spring 2019.
Striking study results was presented on September 4, 2019 in Olten by Alessia Ruf, research associate in the field of applied psychology at the FHNW and responsible for the survey and evaluation as part of the study, and Marco Looser, owner of MCP AG and partner of the Future Work Group. When asked about their understanding of Working World 4.0, terms such as digitalization, transformation, new forms of work, flexibility and networking emerged among the participants, as expected. There is a clear need for action in the status quo determined according to the study results regarding progress in the working world 4.0. According to their own assessment, more than 40% of the respondents are "right at the beginning" (SME: 44 %/GU: 43%), up to 50% are "in the middle" (SME: 43 %/GU: 50%) and only13% (SME) or 7% (GU) are well advanced. With 64%, SMEs see an increase in efficiency in terms of communication and collaboration as the main drivers for the transformation to Working World 4.0, and to the same extent, also with 64%, a strengthening of their innovative strength and creativity.
A cause for concern: employees are not involved enough!
The situation is worrying with regard to the involvement of employees in shaping the working world of the future. Only 27 percent of participants answered this question positively. This means that 73 percent of employees are not or not yet involved in the change process - or the company does not consider this necessary! A rethink is urgently needed here. In addition, there is a noticeable lack of know-how, which 40% of SMEs and 47% of large companies state as a barrier to the step into the working world 4.0.
The detailed results of the study as well as a practical guide will be available to the Swiss business community as a free download from the end of October 2019. More information
Next opportunity for in-depth study insights is October 1, 2019 at the Opening panel Academy - The Working World of the Future at the Business Innovation Week in Zurich.
Interested parties book their ticket here: https://www.businessinnovation.ch/de/tickets/ and get with the discount code BIW19AW4 a discount of 20% on the 3 day pass.
