Business as unusual? Exploring the role of workplace innovation practices for shaping a sustainable future of work in the aftermath of a pandemic crisis.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already a lot of discussion about the future of work in times of digital transformation.  The COVID-19 crisis has now put extraodirnary pressure on organisations to keep their businesses afloat.  Many of them are now fully foucesed on a survival strategy, but companies and trade unions will need to move beyond firefighting interventions.  This crisis presents a unique opportunity to take a long, hard look at organisations, and to engage workforces in reinventing dysfunctional ways of working.  Workplace Innovation refers to the introduction of organistional practies that empower employees, at every level, to use and develop their full range of knowledge, skills and creativity at work, leading to high performance, enhanced innvoation, and improved quality of woking life.  

The key objectives of this seminar are: (1) to address the impact of COVID-19 on organisations, workplaces and social dialogue in times of digital transformation; (2) to discuss the potential role of workplace innovation practices in shaping the post-pandemic future of work; (3) to identify best workplace innovation practices with a prominent and active place for social dialogue, whilst taking into consideration the diversity in employment and industrial relations regimes in the EU.