From Home Working to Agile Working: Dedagroup aims at the strategic reorganization of its work activities

Trento, February 23, 2021 – Dedagroup, the aggregating hub of leading Italian firms in the Software and Solutions as a Service market, has adopted a new Agile Working Model that looks beyond the emergency: from the beginning of this year, Dedagroup is offering its employees a different way of carrying out their activities, going beyond the home-working concept and interpreting this step as an innovative process for transforming the organization and the way work is experienced by the Group’s 1,900 staff. The objectives underlying this important change in the way of working include, as always, people — with the enhancement of the work-life balance, the attraction of new talent and the desire to motivate those already in the Company — as well as the promotion and support of new environmental policies.

Now, one year on from the start of the health emergency, it is no longer surprising, as employment sociologists and business organization experts assert, that the pandemic has accelerated technological change and overcome old mindsets about the ways in which work activity is organized. In fact, remote working has brought significant increases in productivity, so much so that it has become the subject of discussion at the Ministry of Employment, which has set up a working group with the trade unions to examine and draw up common rules.

Well before the lockdown period, thanks to the Organization and Compliance model and technological and organizational choices implemented over the years, the Group had created a digital infrastructure that is based on three fundamental pillars — mobility first, collaboration and cloud — and has guaranteed its people the possibility of remote working from the beginning of the pandemic. In fact, 95% of company staff had transitioned smoothly to home working as early as March 14, 2020. 

Today, Dedagroup is entering a new phase, consistent with the technological and cultural evolution taking place, building on the experience gained during and after the lockdown and supported by the ability of its people to adapt — which, as a consequence, involves the whole organization. Thanks to the new Agile Working Model, the Group’s companies are moving from home working — which up to now has ensured that all daily activities can also be carried out away from the office — to a strategic reorganization of activities based on measurable objectives and new ways of experiencing work by all Deda People.

The starting point for this important new project was actually the interest of employees, as well as the Group’s ability to understand it, in a way of alternating between remote working and face-to-face work, also confirmed by the results of an internal survey, which clearly showed an appreciation for the possibility of self-planning and self-organization. This awareness, also strengthened by a constant high level of productivity, has led the Group to commit to supporting the cultural change taking place by starting the Agile Working Project, with the precise aim of allowing employees to manage their work and time more flexibly, with positive impacts also on the environment and local area thanks to the ensuing reduction in travel.

Agile Working will have to comply with certain necessary criteria such as the ability to delocalize the activities, “measure” work performance and the employee’s degree of operational autonomy. 

“The accountability of each individual resource lies first and foremost at the heart of our new way of working, in which people are the key element. We strongly believe in the concept of shared leadership, in which each person is the first owner of the results achieved,” emphasized Valentina Gilli, Human Resources Director of Dedagroup. “Once the applicability of Agile Working has been verified, it is possible to choose between a weekly or monthly scheduling and carry out one’s activities in any space that ensures full compliance with the Regulation on Company Data Management and the company policies designed to protect confidentiality, availability and integrity of data. We have also defined time conditions to ensure the fundamental right to disconnect,” continued Valentina Gilli.

Provision is made for a further implementation of the Project that will cover technological aspects (such as, for instance, the Agile Working app designed for forwarding the request for working days off-site) and the redesign of spaces. In fact, starting with the Rome and Turin sites, the offices are to be restyled with the aim of creating environments that are even more in tune with this way of working. Moreover, there will be no shortage of training activities targeted to all company staff to support the new agile working model with the aim of improving the Group’s capacity to learn, adapt and evolve constantly.

“For us, the new Agile Working Model does not represent a point of arrival, but a further stage on a path of cultural renewal that the Group has embraced and that it intends to follow in the years to come. Our purpose is to create a blended workplace that is in balance between virtual space and physical space, where it is possible to achieve goals and create value with more fluid tools that are less bound to the concept of time and space,” concluded Valentina Gilli. “A digital revolution based on continual experimentation, but that at the same time is well-anchored to the needs of the business and customers, which will lead to an increase in productivity for the entire working organization, improving the exchange of information and learning and ensuring greater sharing of skills without geographical limits.”