One Life by Agnes Uhereczky

Author:Agnes Uhereczky
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9782874035333
Publisher: Die Keure Publishing
Published: 2018-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

Visionary work-life integration programmes and policies

Even though the evolution of the work-life integration programme was gradual, as we discussed earlier in this chapter, it started over 10 years ago, the new 2015 People Strategy elevated the department from a transactional to a strategic role. With the necessary Leadership support and resources allocated, some of the programmes were revisited and up-graded to contribute to the accelerated growth ambition of the company.

Building on the successes of the existing work flexibility initiatives like home-office and tele-working, flexi-time and part-time options, the work-life integration department decided to go even further and keeping up with the newest working trends introduced additional options for the individual preferences of employees.

In October 2017 the Headquarter introduced the “Off-Campus working” policy. Every employee is entitled to work up to 20 % of their time at a place of their choosing within Germany. This can be at home, at a co-working, or a café, wherever they need to be or can work at their best. The policy takes into account role-based requirements only. While many jobs and tasks can be easily done remotely, others require much more presence at a certain location. Hence, they applied a reverse principle. If line-managers can justify the required presence of their employees, they can opt-out of the policy, otherwise it automatically applies to everyone.

The way it was developed and introduced fully reflects the “adidas way”. The company sought out a location that was the best fit to pilot the initiative. The team chose the North American head office in Portland (USA) office for a number of reasons. The Portland campus on the one hand is a smaller office with fewer employees, and also a less strictly regulated working environment, due to the absence of stringent German Works Council negotiations. The initiative was tested with approximately 80 employees from 3 different departments, IT, Supply Chain and HR. They tried out the “Off-Campus working” working for a couple of months, and when at the end both line-managers and employees were asked to give their feedback, the response was overwhelmingly positive. They all confirmed, that the “Off-Campus” work initiative supported creativity, productivity as well as work-life aspects and also reduced commuting time, which is aligned with the sustainability ambition of adidas.

Once the pilot was successful, it was also introduced at the Herzogenaurach HQ. Even though, the process took a little longer due to the German regulations on the labour market concerning working time and place, health and safety as well as data security, it did not deter the work-life integration department from rolling it out to all the Herzo-based employees. Despite this being a long process, it was worth the effort as it was very well and positively received by the employees. People needed to do online training before they could actually start the process. The work-life integration department was also able to monitor the numbers of employees taking this up. They developed small workshops and toolkits in order to know how these people who work off

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