eWORK 2000 - European Telework Week

New Ways to Work 2000European Telework4.5 Good Practice and Bad Practice in Telework4.5.1 Good Practice in TeleworkNumerous examples of good practice in telework exist all over Europe and the world. Standing in for thesepositive examples only two cases are briefly described below. These are both two insurance companies.In Section 5.6, on telework in Germany, two further examples are described, a virtual network of freelancersand a new self-employment through telework initiative.4.5.1.1. LVM VersicherungenLVM implemented telework on a large scale, thereby reacting on the request of its employees for new forms ofwork organisation and working time flexibility. The company is now the (at least in Germany) front-runner inteleworking with almost 500 teleworkers which amounts to about 30 % of its workforce in the headquarterswhich lend itself to telework.Teleworking was started in 1995. LVM was also the first company in Germany practising teleworking usingthe “tandem model”. This model had the positive side effect that smaller (mainly organisational) problems aresolved by the tandem (i.e. the team of two) on a case-by-case base. In the meantime many companies (e.g.Barmenia, Deutscher Herold, SIGNAL) not only from the insurance sector have also adopted this model whenimplementing telework and also report positively about it.LVM has measured a productivity increase of 10 % among teleworkers. It is against this background that thecompany together with the works council and the explicit agreement of the teleworkers concerned hasdeveloped and signed an agreement whereby all teleworkers agree on carrying an additional workload of 10 %on the days when working from home at no extra pay.Teleworking had the further effect that LVM did not have to build a new second headquarter in the north ofMünster which the company had already planned due to an office space shortage at the traditional location.This and the move of the entire workforce could be avoided by way of introducing telework on a large scaleand building a smaller extension to the existing headquarters. In total approx. 100 Million DM (= approx. 50Million €) was saved since the second headquarters did not have to be build.The remarkable aspect of the LVM teleworking project is the fact that a company from a rather conservativeindustrial sector has become the frontrunner in teleworking concerning the number of teleworkers and overallsize of the project. In the meantime LVM received a number of work flexibilisation awards for theimplementation of its teleworking project. LVM still does not plan to set any limitations concerning thenumber of teleworkers in the future.- 40 -