Ways to renew the relationship between the company and the worker

The machine revolution gives way to the popular revolution. When it is still not clear what the work of the future that is being shaped these days will be like, it is clear that after the disgust caused by the pandemic for new work methodologies, the worker has gained strength in the precarious balance of power he maintains with the company. Post covid, the employee is starting to envision work differently and is fighting like never before Right on your time. He is no longer willing to accept corporate working conditions without question and demands more freedom of choice now that technology allows.

“Workers’ power spreads. They demanded more rights and organizations respond with a penchant for flexibility. It’s a much broader view of remote work that includes, in addition to where the task is done from, when it’s done and in what way, and you talk about schedules and time off and organization…and It fits better with one’s personal lifePablo Claver, People Partner and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) organization.

In a world where talent is considered essential, every day more companies join the trend that tries to give freedom to the employee in exchange for responsibility, says Fernando Polo, CEO of the agency marketing Digital Good rebels. They are still preliminary movements. Small companies in general. a lot startups Who want to do things differently and attract new generations who are more vulnerable to change.

Among the formulas being imposed, work with goals stands out above all, says Jordi Romero, CEO of Factorial, “which allows for the flexibility that workers demand: work the hours you want and where you want; whose results are overwhelming in talent retention and worker motivation, which are compounded.” Because freedom of schedules and organization is the current maximum. But not only. The four-day workday is also advancing, and companies that offer unlimited vacation for their templates, those where no login is required or supporting documents are in pattern, and horizontal organizations in which there are no bosses and decisions are shared among all workers are gaining more and more every day. Even important issues like who gets fired or whose salary is raised. desire?

In the start Pharma Leaders Talent is not, according to co-founder Ines Martinez. He asserts: “We seek trust, not control, and for this reason there are no hierarchies in our company and it is the team that makes decisions.” As many as six cases have been discharged since their birth in 2022 in the Mercadona owner’s shuttle. He explains that its business model is an imitation of that of Netflix, and 12 workers organize their daily work as they see fit, deciding whether they want to work remotely or go to the office, and take unlimited vacations. “Nobody watches what they do. If only the results got better every week,” he points out. He says they work as an agile, high-performance team.

And that is that society is changing, and it keeps the co-founder of this pharmaceutical training company; A paradigm shift is taking place in the work organization model, and what talent requires is the flexibility to be able to reconcile professional and personal life at any time and from anywhere.

Good rebels have been evident for years. Indeed, since CEO Fernando Polo took over in 2010, the culture has changed and with it the treatment of its 140 employees. The company is an example of all the new methodologies mentioned: it operates with objectives, with self-management and a distributed hierarchy, and in fact, it is the workers who agree on how salary increases will be distributed; 100% flexible, gives unlimited holidays and Two years ago, I also introduced the 4-day workday That Polo is surprised that it is not so widespread today in Spain. “I don’t know if it’s because of a fear that it will be difficult to reverse the procedure if it doesn’t work,” he says.

Half rotation

The point is that only 41 small and medium-sized companies have asked the Ministry of Industry for assistance To participate in the pilot plan to implement this system of work when it was expected that there would be three times as many as this subsidized program. However, in the signature marketing Digital couldn’t be happier after increasing productivity by 7% by working one day less and cutting voluntary employee turnover in half. “People feel comfortable and feel well treated,” says Polo. Because he works independently and develops a sense of belonging that ends up yielding results. “A worker is an honest reflection of what the company gives him. If you give him, he gives you,” supports Patricia García, president of Femxa, a goal-driven company with 430 employees, 100% flexible and without absenteeism precisely for this reason, as he highlights.

But all these methodologies become complex as the company grows, warns Jordi Romero and CEO of Good Rebels, for whom “the problem is that in traditional companies there is still a lack of confidence that people will do what they have to do. On the other hand, you have to be strict so that people do not take advantage of the system, for example, with unlimited vacations.” Polo points out that these cultures naturally attract responsible people and also burn those profiles that tend to overburden themselves.

“Lass startups We set a course for what work should be like in the future: working with goals, giving freedom to the employee, not so much for hours of chair-warming. It is also true that in large companies this is more difficult to implement, ”admits Ricardo Taraga, CEO of Yuvod, an on-demand TV platform with 50 employees, 100% flexible, as he believes large companies will tend to be in the future, and in which evidence is not required when losing a 35-hour work week, with a free Friday afternoon, after lunch to which the company invites.

Because it’s about attracting and retaining the best talent, making them feel treated well. This feeling that Andrea Jopants, 24, lives at Ucademy, where she has been working for a year and a half and has been promoted 5 times thanks to the constant training she has given start It was established in 2020 and employs 70 employees. What you value most about her are the growth possibilities it gives her, her flexible hours, her “confidence to suggest ideas and change things,” and of course her proposals for celebrations, whether for parties or results: last year she celebrated by taking the entire staff to Bali for two weeks. “Workers are always rewarded. If not, people lose motivation,” he says.

They are not first-rate issues in a working relationship, but they are important. Like the barbecue that Yuvod serves on the 150 square meter terrace of his office in Valencia or that it is a company Pet friendly. Maximiliano Gomez, a 29-year-old Argentinian computer engineer who has been working there for 9 months, thanks. It feels like being among friends, he says, and even more so when he brings his dog, Pistachio, a six-month-old golden retriever, into the office, “For me it’s a plus. It’s the first job I can bring my pet to.”

Although the business culture of 95% of companies has not changed much in recent years in Spain, where people are not trusted and organizations are very traditional, notes Pilar Lesser, Director of the Center for the Future of Work at EAE Business School, “I have no doubt that these models are here to stay, new generations demand them”.

Pablo Claver is of the same opinion. It reveals the clear advantages of its implementation: not to lose talent by offering unsustainable working conditions, to allow people to develop faster and to contribute to making the Spanish labor market more competitive. Of the shortcomings, the BCG partner sees the loss of team cohesion and the difficulties in integrating new employees into the company.

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