Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Smart working appears to be an opportunity for growth even if it penalizes sociability and must be reconciled with the right to disconnect

Milan, 23 June 2020 - Covid-19 emergency and smart working change the perception of work in the Public Administration. For 85% of employees it was an opportunity to experiment with a new way of approaching work and for 72,5% this experience favored and facilitated the acquisition of new skills. 66,8% believe that their productivity has remained the same as work done in person and 30% of these declare that it has even increased. There is certainly no shortage of aspects to improve: 44% perceive the lack of contact and socialization with colleagues and 37,3% report the lack of adequate devices.   

These are some of the data that emerged from the research conducted by the Administration on Extraordinary Agile Work (LAS) carried out by employees of the Municipality of Milan and presented to the press today by the councilors Cristina Tajani (Labour Policies, Productive Activities and Human Resources), Roberta Cocco (Digital Transformation and Civic Services) and Lorenzo Lipparini (Participation, Active Citizenship and Open Data) and commented by Maurizio Del Conte, Professor of Labor Law at Bocconi University.

“The research data rewards the positive work done by the Administration, even before the Covid emergency, both in terms of technological innovation and the reorganization of work processes – declares councilor Cristina Tajani -. Previous experience has guaranteed the efficiency of the organization in an emergency and the sudden transition, without any particular critical issues, from just 321 workers in smart working at the beginning of the year to over 7.000 in the last few months. Agile Work, which cannot be the exclusive way of performing work, is now essential for a modern public administration capable of responding to the needs of employees and users by combining results, efficiency and flexibility to reconcile work and family life. We will gradually abandon the Extraordinary Agile Work method that has accompanied these months - concludes Tajani -, but not the lessons learned and the new organizational attitudes that enhance the result, work towards objectives, conciliation".

"Smart working has been fundamental in this period of emergency to guarantee the continuity of services to citizens - comments the councilor for Digital Transformation and Civic Services Roberta Cocco -. Thanks to the progressive development of the technological infrastructure in the last 4 years we have succeeded to react promptly to employees' smart working requests, managing to activate even 100 virtual desktops in less than an hour. Furthermore, Agile Working has allowed employees in the Citizen Services area to work around 24 thousand cases remotely, thus eliminating pending requests and significantly reducing waiting times for processing new procedures".

"The research carried out is very important - says Maurizio Del Conte, Professor of Labor Law at Bocconi University - because it gives us timely monitoring of workers' reactions to a sudden organizational change with an unprecedented impact. Naturally the data must be evaluated taking into account the exceptional nature of the context in which this experience was developed, which certainly influenced some responses. The result of the investigation will be invaluable for further improving the Agile Working model of the Municipality of Milan with a view to improving productivity and, consequently, services to citizens, the quality of the working environment and the impact on local mobility".

The research involved 5.795 municipal employees out of the over 7.300 who experimented with Agile Working from 9 March to today during phase 1 and phase 2 of the health emergency out of a total of around 15 thousand overall (among which 3.500 are teachers and 3.500 police Local). The survey is the first analysis of its kind conducted on a more than representative sample. Predominantly women responded to the survey (65% of participants). This figure is substantially in line with the municipal population currently in LAS (60%F - 40%M) and with the prevalence of female employees. 41% carry out administrative, staff or management work within the administrative machine, while 13% carry out territorial control and local police activities; 11% carry out technical activities; 6% coordination and control; 5% in culture; another 5% are active in the front office and another 5% in the social care sector.

If it is possible to trace a prevalent profile of the Extraordinary Agile Worker, it is a female worker, aged between 36 and 55, who carries out administrative, staff or management activities.

The degree of satisfaction expressed by the employees who responded to the survey is significant and is decidedly high, in all management departments of the Administration: on a scale from 0 to 10, the average is equal to 7,7 and for no management is it lower to 6. The degree of satisfaction is inversely proportional to the age of the individual worker. The younger ones are the ones who most appreciate Agile Working and the possibility of trying their hand at digital processes that allow them to optimize their working time, thus having more free time to dedicate to themselves.

If 72,5% declare that they have experienced smart working as an opportunity to grow their skills and abilities, 91% have developed greater IT and technological skills; 63% declare that they have seen an increase in their technical and organizational knowledge for their job. Lastly, for 80,9%, the possibility of "continuing to feel an active part in the organisation's activities" was also relevant, and for 80,1% it was the ability to interact and relate in a positive manner with one's work group.

There is certainly no shortage of critical issues and aspects on which the Administration will have to intervene. In fact, significant was the report of an accumulation of stress resulting from the lack of a clear distinction between work time and life time, which opens up the issue of the right to disconnect especially in the intensive form of home working deployed during the lockdown period and of staying at home.

The research also revealed some wishes from employees. Over 34% hope that Agile Working can be an increasingly present operating method even after the Covid-19 emergency, with a non-continuous method, but alternating with on-site work. A dimension that for 6% of workers also means rethinking their home environment (equipping themselves with a smart working station) that is shared with the family unit.

The positive trend represented by smart working is also confirmed by the data processed by the Siad management of the Municipality of Milan: 5.172 virtual workstations for working from home, over 48 thousand meetings held via video conference, together with over 44 thousand calls and 69 thousand instant messages exchanged on the platform.