ESTER - ESperimento di TElelavoRo (Teleworking Experiment) (2006-2007)

Title: ESTER - ESperimento di TElelavoRo at Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale

"Teleworking constitutes a form of organization and / or work performance that makes use of information technologies in the context of a contractual or employment relationship, in which the work activity, which could be carried out on the company premises is instead regularly carried out outside its premises ".

In particular, alternate teleworking involves carrying out activities in a mixed mode that alternates normal work on-site with activities carried out remotely.

This formula is particularly suitable for reconciling work and family because, even with all the advantages deriving from working at home, it restricts the phenomena of alienation and poor visibility that usually accompany "classic" teleworking.

Telework is therefore regularly provided in partial form, that is, alternating days of work on site with days of remote working. This is functional to a better balance between work times and deadlines and family life rhythms, especially when these are marked by the needs of family members to look after (elderly parents and / or young children).

The introduction of systems that take into account the needs of the family, of solutions for the care of children and the elderly, and the development of a work environment and organisation that facilitate the reconciliation of work and family responsibilities for women and men, is a measure in full coherence with the provisions of Law 53/2000 and, more generally, with the conciliation policies at European level (it is no coincidence that we have referred to the EU Glossary).

The project pursues the objective of allowing staff (teaching and administrative) with intense care loads (small children, frail elderly, etc.) to manage more easily the daily reconciliation of professional tasks with family responsibilities. In fact, it provides for the experimentation for 6 months of a new way of working, based on the remote delivery of one's professional service (at a place chosen by the worker, at the nearest university or from one's home) placed side by side in an alternating and periodic way with the traditional format. The project is designed and organized in such a way as to guarantee an extremely flexible management between work on-site and remote work, allowing a wide margin of discretion in the organisation of one's working day / week, alternating work on-site and work at a distance.

Funding: Piedmont Regional Authority, Vocational Training - Work Department

Line of action (from the Call): 3.1.A Introduction and experimentation within the company of organisational formulas of decentralized work to introduce and / or strengthen flexible models of telework (e.g., home, at alternative premises, mobile workstations), including the implementation of support actions and tutoring for workers who adopt a new way of working, also after prolonged absence from the workplace)

Project organiser: University of Eastern Piedmont "Amedeo Avogadro"

Project Leader: Dott. Pasquale Mastrodomenico (Admin leader); Prof.a Maria Luisa Bianco (Project head)

Ranking in Call: first place.

Overall value of project: 64,850 Euro

Duration of project: 12 months (30 January 2006 - 29 January 2007)