deskbird provides companies and employees around the world with people-centric office management tools to create a hybrid work environment. With deskbird’s desk management software, employees can easily reserve their desk or meeting room in the office.
After its huge success in the German-speaking countries, deskbird now expands to Italy! The app for office management and desk booking will be available in Italian from January 2022.
Smart working office management in Italy
In Italy, the term for remote work is “telelavoro” and is often used in combination with “Smart Working”. Smart Working doesn't automatically mean that employees can work from home or can use desk sharing in Italy. Rather the terms encompasses concepts such as sharing knowledge, flexibility, cooperation, transparency and trust to work outside the office. This term also includes the use of new and the improvement of existing technologies to boost performance.
With many new technologies and office management tools, the home office is becoming more interesting for companies in Italy and their employees. Also, the reduction of social contacts and the legislation in Italy due to the pandemic in 2020, have moved the home office into the focus of companies.
To ensure that remote and hybrid work can be carried out, it was necessary to equip employees with the hardware, software and information resources to better manage digital work. In the pandemic, 31.4% of employees (data from ISTAT) were able to work from home and now 25.1% can still use the remote opportunity.
Mars Italia and Barilla go ahead with hybrid work
The international company Mars is based in Italy and is well-known for their chocolate bars. They are a pioneer of desk sharing in Italy. For ten years, Mars Italia called employees “Associates”. Since 2009, the company equipped each Associate with a laptop and iPhone and allowed flexible work hours. For the work from home costs, the workers get reimbursed by Mars Italia. For the company and the 32,000 office-based Associates there is no difference anymore between working from home or in the office.
Barilla is the perfect office management example in the food industry. In 2013, some of Barilla's teams (1,000 employees) were able to work remotely one day a week. This first trial went so well that they extended the opportunity to complete remote weeks and will be offering this hybrid module soon to more teams. Barilla sees the future of work in remote and smart working: “Our Future of Work strategy is designed to empower Associates to make more choices about where, when and how to work to be the most productive and effective.”
PwC brings desk sharing to Italy
The international consultancy company PwC moved into the CityLife Tower in Milan this year, but only 20 out of 1,200 employees used the office in April. To keep all offices, hybrid and remote teams connected, PwC invested in new virtual tools and increased the technology infrastructure.
PwC is a role model for desk sharing in Italy, the company offers three complementary workplaces: the office in the CityLife Tower, home office, or desk sharing in Italian coworking spaces. When employees choose to go into the company office, they don't have a specific desk, but special areas are reserved for each team.
The future of work in Italy
Despite these role models, some companies in Italy are still struggling with allowing their employees to work from home, some don't have the right office management tools yet, and some need new technologies and desk management.
Whilst many big international companies are already pioneers in smart and remote working and hybrid work environments, more companies will follow them to stay competitive in 2022.
deskbird helps companies with desk sharing or desk booking in Italy. With new opportunities for desk sharing in Italy, more companies can easily and quickly implement hybrid work modules tailored to their needs and offer their employees more flexibility.
➡️ Learn more with our free Hybrid work ebook how to set up your hybrid office using the BIRD-Framework.
