Developing digital skills for work coordination in remote work (DigiPaikka)

Based on recent studies, utilizing remote work (work-from-anywhere) can increase resilience, alleviate labor shortages, and maintain the competitiveness of companies in a changing operating environment. Various digital solutions enable the proliferation of remote work, thereby ensuring the availability of skilled workforce for companies and regions experiencing a shortage of workers. However, remote work is not widely utilized in companies despite the growing need due to significant challenges in workforce availability. Specifically, there are essential development needs related to the coordination of remote work. Remote work requires new coordination methods and skills from supervisors, employees, and organizational management, as well as readiness and ability to utilize various digital tools. The increasing self-directed nature of work and the need to adopt new digital tools, however, impose additional burdens on the personnel and management of companies, affecting factors such as work engagement, well-being, and productivity. To ensure the productivity of digitalization and manage the workload, compatibility of technologies and sufficient user skills must be ensured to fully leverage the tools.  

The main objective of this project is to solve coordination-related issues in remote work and work-from-anywhere by adopting suitable digital tools and enhancing their utilization in micro and small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By developing the coordination of remote work, the project seeks solutions for 1) workforce availability and engagement challenges, 2) work well-being, and 3) work productivity. The project's measures aim to strike a balance between increasing productivity and managing workload, thus supporting sustainable business development, organizational renewal, and effective work performance in companies.  The project will assess the challenges of remote work in businesses, including attitudes, digital skills, digital architecture, effective utilization of digital tools, management skills, work productivity, workload, and well-being. Based on the assessment, workshops, training, and device trials will be provided to companies to address the primary challenges. The measures aim to increase the openness and readiness of companies' management and employees to utilize digital tools in remote work and work-from-anywhere. Companies will be supported in developing work methods and culture in a sustainable manner, focusing on the coordination of remote work and the roles of supervisors and employees in organizational self-control of work arrangements. Work well-being will be supported through measures that reduce digital load, such as addressing identified skill needs. The impact of the measures on companies' readiness for remote work will be evaluated through a follow-up study. Based on the results, a widely applicable roadmap will be created to help companies assess and develop their skills and operations to meet the needs of their current and future employees. As a result, companies' productivity, competitiveness, and collective well-being will develop in a sustainable manner.  The development of remote work implementation in organizations supports business growth, internationalization, and helps secure a skilled workforce. Work-from-anywhere and a new, more flexible work culture also lead to the emergence of new jobs, particularly those requiring high expertise, and will further enable new business opportunities.