VW operates the world's biggest car factory at its headquarters in Wolfsburg and employs around 100,000 employees in Germany alone. Since the pandemic, about half of them have been working from home. Then, since mid-September 2021 the company has loosened its restrictions and allowed employees to return to the office.
Today, the Volkswagen Group is expanding the flexibility of working from home even further, as the company aims to improve the work-life balance of employees: The future is Hybrid. Employees are able to work from home up to four days per week and distribute these working days within a calendar month. The office has been redesigned and desk sharing is now part of the work culture. For VW, desk sharing is an important feature of the work environment and part of the future of work at VW.
Flexible working before and after the crisis
For the fifth year, Volkswagen AG employees are able to work remotely from time to time. Once the pandemic restrictions are lifted, employees can request to combine the remaining working days into blocks. The "mobile working" concept was regulated in the Volkswagen AG works agreement, which has been in place since 2016 and has now been further developed. The new "Mobile Working - New Start" concept now complements the company's diverse range of employee-oriented, flexible and hybrid working models.
"The future of work at Volkswagen will be hybrid," says Gunnar Kilian, Group Executive of Human Resources. Especially now, after the pandemic, employees can take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitization and working from home without having to give up personal interaction. " To successfully implement the new regulations, a strong culture of trust and leadership is needed within the company," Gunnar Kilian added. VW believes in its employees and in the success of its updated hybrid concept "Mobile Working - Restart."
Components of new concept “Mobile work – Restart”:
1. Up to four days a week of remote work
In the new version of hybrid work, it is possible to flexibly choose these days per calendar month.
2. Employees choose what they need
Participation in mobile work remains voluntary. Employees have no entitlement to work remotely. Therefore, the possibility and design of mobile work will continue to be agreed between the manager, the team and the employee, taking into account the requirements of the company.
3. The work task must be suitable for remote work
Temporary absence from the workplace must not affect the work result and operational process.
4. Respect working hours
Employees who work in the office and those who work remotely: For both groups, individual weekly working hours are the same. Taking into account the needs of the company and the employees, fixed times are set for accessibility.
For VW, it is important that hybrid forms of office collaboration do not lead to a dissolution of work boundaries. They are changing the office and inventing desk sharing, which employees choose themselves, to work in a great and flexible work environment again.
The Volkswagen Group is clearly a Hybrid Hero for successfully implementing hybrid working while demonstrating that remote concepts should always be adapted to current circumstances and employee needs. VW believes that desk sharing is relevant for the future of work and has ambitious goals for the next few years.
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