"Future of Work" at UID – Mastering the Transformation of Work

How do we work together at UID after two years of Corona? How do we find the way to a new normality of work? With our study "Future of Work at UID", we venture an interim assessment – and show how the transformation of work can succeed. To start with: UID employees will continue to work flexibly in the mobile office in the future – with specific recommendations on the balance between presence and distance.

The signs point to a fresh start: after five waves in two years, some normality is returning in many industries. The experience of the last two years has left its mark: The pandemic has shown that locally independent cooperation can work well. A change in thinking has taken place among employees and employers. Hardly anyone can now imagine returning to the former way of working in offices.

How do we design our "mobile office"?

Our new working world is defined by the "mobile office", i.e., the possibility for employees to perform their tasks at locations other than the office or the customer's premises. But what form of work do employees want in the future? What changes in working remain permanently? What do we even need an office for anymore? How do you guarantee data protection and data security in the mobile office?

What does the future of work look like?

Countless questions, and the answers to which were initially discussed by an internal working group at UID. To accomplish this, she first interviewed everyone at UID. Almost all employees took part in the internal study. Questions about the form and location of work, office use, and data security and privacy should enable sound decisions about how we want to work together in the future.

Click through the results at a glance:

No transformation without values

With these and some other results, the internal working group formulated a new guideline. Importantly: UID values support our transformation and serve as guideposts. The results of the survey showed how important the UID values of "trust" and "freedom" are to employees and how much they want to work autonomously and self-organized. And it is precisely these wishes that the new guideline makes perceptible.

Some elements of the "Future of Work" at UID

Employees decide as far as possible independently on their working hours and place of work. This way, everyone is able to provide work with a framework in which they can work best.
For some appointments, the office is recommended, such as for longer workshops, job interviews, meetings like mentor interviews, or important team meetings like retros and kickoffs.
Job interviews and the onboarding phase of new employees usually take place in person.
As before, each employee has an ergonomic workstation in an attractive and well-equipped office.
There are also recommendations for remote work: Starting appointments a little earlier for a casual exchange, meetings with up to 10 people with a camera image, and communicating availability (when/where) via status in MS Teams. In addition, it should be possible to see who is in the office and when for each location.
Fixed standards for data protection and data security

We are pleased with this result, which provides our collaboration in presence and distance with a new framework. In line with our corporate culture, we will test the guideline again at the appropriate time.

The authors

Stefanie Angele

As Creative Director at UID Stefanie is responsible for the holistic UX development of digital products. She coaches companies in the UCD process and develops innovative products for the world of today and tomorrow, considering technologies and trends.

Marion Gottschling

Whether social media, PR concept, journalist inquiry or trade fair organization - Marion designs UID's communication with the Corporate Communications team. The information designer and PR consultant knows UID on the FF: More than 15 years ago, she was the first employee of Corporate Communications.

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