eWork in Germany – Contribution for Collaboration@Work 2005Status Report

The last years have seen a change in attitude towards new ways of working and their role inthe modernisation of organisations. Until a few years ago, balancing employees’ interestswith those of business has often been the spur for introducing eWork in German companies.The opportunity to practise home-based eWork was offered either to appear as a moreattractive employer on the labour market or to retain employees. While it was expected frommanagement that costs for investments in telework equipment and maintenance would atleast be covered by savings, calculations were often done in form of rough guesses only.Apart from these primarily socio-politically motivated telework projects, there have alwaysbeen those which have been implemented as a result of particular circumstances. There areexamples here of expanding businesses which react to an existing shortage of space byintroducing multi-locational eWork combined with desk sharing. Others were able to continueemploying as teleworkers those workers unwilling to move in case of business relocations.