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Promoting eWork in Remote Regions: Lessons from FlexWork

Article · October 2011

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 Promoting eWork in Remote Regions:
Lessons from FlexWork
Frank WILSON1, Margaret GRENE2 , Hill STEWART3, Davorin ROGINA4
1
Interaction Design Ltd, 13 Stonehills House, Welwyn Garden City, UK
Tel: +44 1707 338 751, Fax: +44 1707 373 901, Email: [email protected]
2
Waterford Institute of Technology, TSSG, Waterford Business Park, Waterford, Ireland
Tel: +353 51 302 936, Fax +353 51 302 420, Email: [email protected]
3
Impington Technology, 40 Woodcock Close, Impington, Cambridge, UK
Tel: +44 1223 233 692, Fax: +44 1223 233 692, Email: [email protected]
4
ALP PECA, Prezihova 17, 2390 Ravne na Koroskem, Slovenia
Tel:+386 2 8217860, Fax:+386 2 8217861, Email: [email protected]
Abstract: The FlexWork project provided a set of knowledge objects (handbook,
templates, cases, decision support tools) to business advisors in ten European regions
and assisted them in learning about flexible working. These advisors were also
provided with standardised presentation materials and supported in deploying
knowledge about flexible working to their constituencies of SME clients at regional
level (multiplier). The demand for knowledge about flexible working among
business advisors and their clients was seen to be significant, and uptake was
supported by evidence of usage of online materials. The experience supported
refinement of the package of materials, and provided several lessons of benefit to
future initiatives supporting regional information society uptake.
http://www.flexwork.eu.com

1. Introduction, Background and Objectives

The FlexWork project has been sponsored by the EC and ten European regions to provide a
support package to remote regions to help business advisors leverage SME adoption of
flexible working methods for economic advancement. It is widely recognised that the
accelerating Information Society (IS) can leave behind those not prepared for uptake of IS
opportunities, and the more remote a region, or a specific business, the higher the risk. The
focus on remote regions and SMEs supports the eEurope general aim of inclusion, and
targets the special case of the least developed areas, including New Accession States.
The main objective was to exploit opportunities to add value to local actions by
providing new knowledge and tools addressing flexible working aimed at business advisors.
Business advisors are the front line of regional business development, and are a
professional group whose organisation varies throughout Europe. They may be members of
a professional body with ‘continuing professional development’ (e.g. Institute of Business
Advisors), or they may be private advisors trading on their own experience and skill
(informal). Each region has its own business support network and uses different kinds of
advisors, but the shared objective is to impart knowledge and experience to business
managers facing problems or investment decisions. The main objective was supported by
identifying and engaging existing business support networks to capitalise on established
support relationships. An initial specific objective underpinning this general aim was to
develop a set of ‘flexible working blueprints’ and a ‘handbook’ of flexible working, and to
channel these knowledge objects via the existing business support networks. This strategy
was aimed to empower local business advisors as multipliers for uptake of flexible working.
All products can be seen at http://www.flexwork.eu.com
2. The FlexWork Approach
A general approach to knowledge sharing, especially between remote actors, is to codify
such knowledge in appropriate forms. Preparatory work with a sample of regional business
advisors had identified a keen interest in two specific routes to knowledge acquisition
concerning flexible working. The first was a general reference text covering the domain of
flexible working at a level, and in a style, that would be accessible by business advisors and
SME managers who were not experts in either technology or flexible working. The second
was a set of scenarios showing how to implement different styles of flexible working in a
practical way. These were conceived as ‘blueprints’ (templates) and each addressed a
specific type of flexible working derived from a wide set of actual case materials.
The set of basic materials was supported by a standard presentation on flexible working
translated for local audiences. The project promotion team identified and made contact with
the local business support infrastructure in each target region, and organised a series of
workshops. These workshops were used to present flexible working methods and benefits,
and to encourage detailed discussions amongst participants. At this stage, business advisors
already evidenced significant concerns, including the need to have local language
translations of materials, and the need to have a wider set of materials, including case
studies with a specific SME perspective (actual examples), case studies with a regional
perspective (regional development actions), presentation materials to be used by business
advisors, and tools to assist with planning and implementing flexible working pilots or
schemes. This initial feedback cycle [1] allowed the project to achieve a first complete
‘package’ of information which was made available to registered business advisors via the
project web portal. These registered members formed focus groups in participating regions,
and provided a basis for evaluation studies in each region.
Table 1 – FlexWork Package for Business Advisors
Handbook of Flexible Working 1
Blueprints (templates) 10
SME Manager Briefings (business operational) 6
Technology Briefings (business technical) 25
Technology Case Studies (technical) 27
SME Case Studies (experience) 30
Regional Case Studies (development) 17
IST Success Stories (project examples) 12
External Link Inventory 1
Decision Support Tools and Checklists 6
Flexible Working Contracts (examples) 3

A second round of workshops in participating regions allowed in-depth discussion of

the materials, and sharing of experience between advisors who had been using such
materials to assist companies in their regions [2]. This approach helped regional advisors
understand how their own locality compared with other regions, and allowed them to learn
from the experience of others in deploying knowledge about flexible working. This mixture
of benchmarking and learning (mainly informal) seems to have been a significant aspect of
the overall experience from the business advisor point of view, and allowed them to provide
feedback on what they required to support improved uptake of flexible working in their
regions.
 Based on this feedback, the FlexWork package was finalised, as illustrated in Table 1,
and subjected to a formal evaluation involving expert Business Advisors from each
participating region. After the initial evaluation work, conducted to ensure the materials
were truly fit for their purpose, the web portal was made public. Business advisors are still
encouraged to register, and do so at a steady but low level, while many others make use of
FlexWork materials on a daily basis. The materials have been translated in line with
demand, with ten languages covered to different levels of completion at present, and
translation work is ongoing.
3. Main Results
More than 480 registered business advisors now use the FlexWork resources for business
advisory work, and hundreds more un-registered users of the FlexWork site provide
significant numbers of hits and downloads, suggesting a much wider sphere of usage. A
sample of these is used to gather feedback on the usage experience (follow up to the main
evaluation).
The main evaluation employed 60 business advisors from participating regions who
each had been provided with the full package of materials and who each had opportunity to
use these materials in their work with business clients (SMEs). A test methodology derived
from the STEPS [3] method was employed, and was applied using translations of common
instruments and procedures in each region. The data was collected for analysis, and extracts
of the overall results [4] are reported here.

3.1 Existing Concerns and Expectations

As part of the pre-test procedures, prior to addressing FlexWork directly, business advisors
were asked to declare the concerns that they brought with them, and which they felt
FlexWork should be able to address. The most frequent offerings were:
• Needing to know about human resource management (HRM), training, and work-life
balance.
• Needing to know about flexible work operations (how to make business flexible).
• Needing to know about how flexible working can support business development issues
(innovation, start-up, location, competition, cost)
• Needing to know about savings in travel and time.
And so it seems that employment, business operations, regional development and costs
were the main areas of concern. When asked about how they felt FlexWork might be of
benefit, the main offerings were:
• Improve flexible-working knowledge and ability to support clients.
• Improve local economy and competitiveness.
This finding is highly supportive of the main objectives and approach of FlexWork, and
so encourages confidence and confirms the potential value of such an intervention.

3.2 Initial problems Using FlexWork Materials

The advisors who participated in the focus groups offered only one strong concern in
relation to initial use of FlexWork materials. They felt a need to have ‘localised’ materials.
That is to say, materials translated to local language, as well as materials that referred
closely to the local situation. For example, flexible working contracts from another country
were seen as interesting examples, but it was felt that examples from their own country, and
preferably region, would help more, and would inspire more confidence in taking up an
approach that had been proven at a more local level (better match). This general concern of
matching at local level was quite strong, and suggests that although we had some success in
providing ‘generic’ material, advisors and their SME-Manager clients want as close a
match (example case, regulation, contract, etc.) as possible.

3.3 General Perception of FlexWork Materials

The participating advisors were asked a range of questions about each item in the FlexWork
package, and were asked to score these to show acceptability, satisfaction, etc. The
materials (handbook, blueprints, etc.) were generally well received and no significant
problems were fond with the materials per se. However, the issue of localisation appeared
again as the main concern, and it was seen that advisors declared that they used the
materials (in order of importance):
• to improve own knowledge
• to assist local development actions
• to support specific SME clients
• to inform regional/local policy and strategy

3.4 Use of Decision Support Tools

The main use of decision support tools observed in the focus groups concerned the online
cost-benefit-analysis tool (CBT), and the ‘flexible work implementation planning’ aid
(FWIP). Added to this were several checklists to assist advisor surveys of companies prior
to implementation of flexible working, or checking coverage of key issues during pilots or
operation. The CBT proved to be very popular, and has been translated from the original
English version, to German and Slovenian (others planned). The FWIP also proved popular,
especially in training of business advisors (e.g. in Slovenia) where the guidance for
developing a detailed plan for implementation was used to also guide advisors through
usage of all supporting materials (to inform planning decisions). It was felt that hands on
experience by local advisors was necessary to really situate new knowledge and make it
operational.

3.5 Selection of Materials Online

Observation of the web site logs shows who is selecting materials and what materials are
being selected. In the case of ‘technology briefings’, for example, it was seen that those
related to ‘networks’, especially broadband technologies (e.g. ADSL, WiFi, Powerline,
etc.), were most popular and accounted for almost half of the 10,000 copies of technical
briefings downloaded in the first 18 months of operation.
In the case of technical case studies, selection shows a preference for cases addressing
networked organisations rather than individual cases of teleworking, and this pattern is
echoed in other materials such as blueprints and regional cases.

3.6 Multiple Views – Common Problem

A key result was the discovery that our customers, the business advisors, required multiple
perspectives on the same problem space. While we had started out with the idea that a
handbook plus a set of ‘blueprints’ would suffice, they quickly made clear their demands
for case studies, technology briefings, business briefings, decision support tools, and other
codifications of knowledge about flexible working. This demand was both encouraging and
problematic, since we had to quickly determine how to respond to this, plus the demand for
multiple languages, very quickly. The multiple forms of information requested suggest that
since business advisors are not well standardised (see later), there is a need to provide
multiple access routes to knowledge about flexible working. Different forms and different
levels of expression of the same fundamental knowledge are required to ensure access to a
heterogeneous constituency, and so knowledge/information access is a key issue in regional
deployment of new IS opportunities.

3.7 Variety of Actors in Business Support Networks

As previously stated, it was discovered that business support networks are not well
standardised in Europe, nor is the type of professional who provides business advice at the
front line. At the professional level the range is from formal qualifications in business
advisory practice, plus continuing professional development (e.g. Institute of Business
Advisors, IBA), to completely private practitioners trading on their own experience as
successful business professionals (craft approach). At the institutional level the range is
from well established Regional Development Agency (RDA) employing trained advisors,
to informal local collectives of concerned business people providing mutual support via
trade bodies, local chambers, and other such networks of local business practitioners. What
is significant is that in every region there is some kind of, at least seminal, business support
network in operation.

*Technology Provider

*Private Business Advisor

University/Research

*Government Body

*Regional Development Agency

Industry/User

*Business Advisory Assoc

*Trade Association

NGO/V.Sector

*Flexible Work Association

Business/Management Consultant

*Chamber of Commerce

Misc.

European Association

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Figure1 – Types of Business Advisors Registered in FlexWork (484 at 03/03)

It is important to note that the lack of standardisation in business support delivery at

regional level means that National and European initiatives may find it easier to reach some
business operators than others where leveraging or catalytic actions are dependent on local
networks (multipliers). A key lesson to carry forward from this is the need to consider how
to harmonise the ways in which European SMEs are provided support for business
development. This has implications for Information Society, Employment, Regional
Development and European Enterprise, and so it is a problem that is hard to locate with
one authority or champion, and may require collaboration of several agencies at European,
National and Regional levels.

3.8 Ongoing Use of FlexWork Materials

FlexWork materials are now used in more than 30 countries, including all EU Member
States and New Accession States. In 22 months of operation, the FlexWork site has seen
downloads of 130,000 items (in 10 languages) including handbooks, blueprints, technology
briefings, case studies and decision support tools. As an act of electronic publishing this in
itself is quite significant. However, as an action towards regional development based on
uptake of Information Society opportunities it is extremely interesting. The interest in
flexible working stems from real needs in the participating regions. However, the level of
activity relies on the catalytic effect of the ‘outreach’ programme whereby nominated
champions from FlexWork worked with focus groups from regional business support
networks to engage them, involve them in defining their knowledge needs, and assist them
in benchmarking (informally) their region and learning from that how to better support
local exploitation of flexible working. Use of FlexWork materials will continue in these
regions, and a follow-up action is planned to ensure broader address to other regions not yet
engaged.
A key feature of the observed success of FlexWork has been the task-sensitive nature of
its product set and support actions. Getting close to regional business support networks, and
really understanding the advisors and their local concerns, has helped the project fit itself to
the real task needs of regional business advisors. We feel this approach is worthy of closer
scrutiny in follow-up work.
4. Summary of Key Lessons and Future Perspectives
The FlexWork project has involved a large team of developers and outreach workers,
engaged with an even larger team of regional business advisors who represent different
regional business support networks. A number of significant lessons are suggested by the
results.
A key lesson lies in the recognition that business advisors at regional level strongly
share concerns to better understand how flexible working can impact employment, local
business operations, regional development initiatives, and work-life balance. The advisors
who offer these concerns are also personally concerned to acquire knowledge about flexible
working so as to improve their own knowledge, and hence their ability to support SME
clients as part of the general aim to improve local economy and competitiveness. Work
needs to be done to enhance advisor competence as part of local capacity building.
It is also clear that advisors, while emphasising professional development and support
for specific clients, also have concerns to support regional/local policy and strategy.
A significant lesson is that transmission of knowledge requires it to be codified in as
many diverse forms as possible (so hundreds more cases in exactly the same format may
not add much). In a regional context there is a strongly heterogeneous client base, and
having different kinds of cases, reports, success stories, tools, etc., increases the likelihood
that a specific SME manager or advisor can find information that is a good match with their
needs for examples, technical answers, or whatever. It is also accepted that these diverse
materials must contain enough ‘locally relevant’ items as possible, and relevance is gained
through local language, local cases, and exposure of local technical and regulatory
information.
A key finding was that decision support tools, such as cost-benefit-analysis and
planning aids, help advisors select and operationalise relevant knowledge objects in a
specific task setting. This situates knowledge relative to known problem spaces and
supports advisor progress in acquiring new knowledge.
 Advisors and their clients appear to have a stronger interest in ‘networked
organisations’ than in individual telework methods and examples. There is also evidence
that advisors feel that the technical solutions could enhance links between local business
and regional government / business support.
Regional business support networks take many forms and involve many different actors.
In each region a different pattern may be found, and no common scheme seems to exist,
except perhaps within countries where a National initiative strongly influences the shaping
of regional initiatives. Accessing such networks requires an outreach programme whereby
personal contact is used to develop links to key actors.
These lessons can be summarised as:
• Business advisors want flexible working to improve employment, effective business
operation, work-life balance, and regional development initiatives.
• Business advisors want to acquire knowledge about flexible working to improve their
own knowledge and hence their ability to help SME clients.
• Business advisors want to continue learning in new IS areas for both professional
development and to help them improve local economy and competitiveness.
• Business advisors want to be able to access new knowledge via a set of knowledge
objects that support multiple views on the same problems space (variety in learning
materials).
• Business advisors seek ‘locally relevant’ learning materials to support clients in their
own language or via examples from the same trade, region, culture, etc.
• Business advisors want to use decision support tools to help select relevant examples,
cases, etc. Such tools must be convincing to their clients (deliver value).
• Business advisors and their clients have a stronger interest in ‘networked organisations’
than in traditional telework, and identify networking between regional
government/business support and local SMEs to be of high potential value.
• Regional business support networks and the advisors/actors involved take many forms.
Some are more developed and more effective than others. There is concern to see
harmonisation of business support in all EU regions to guarantee equality of access and
opportunity in Information Society benefits.
Future work by agencies in IST, Employment, European Enterprise, and Regional
Development could contribute significant benefit by addressing the need to offer a
harmonised level and quality of support to business development at regional level.
Inequalities determined by historical factors mitigate against the objectives of equality of
access embodied in the eEurope action plan and subsequent specific initiatives. These can
be overcome by ensuring the business support networks at regional level have opportunity
to learn from each other and to develop best practice Europe-wide. This will also add value
to specific programmes such as IST by ensuring the necessary pre-conditions exist for
effective uptake of the IS opportunities and benefits which such programmes generate.
References
[1] FlexWork Project Report IST-2000-26367-D101, Service Deployment Template Requirements Definition
and Test Plan, 2001.
[2] FlexWork Project Report IST-2000-26367-D102, Results of Tests of Service Deployment Templates
Version 1, 2002.
[3] FlexWork Project Report IST-2000-26367-I101, FlexWork Test Methodology, 2002.
[4] FlexWork Project Report IST-2000-26367-D103, Results of Tests of Service Deployment Templates
Version 2, 2002.
[5] FlexWork project web site – http://www.flexwork.eu.com

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