New Work in Public Administration - Third workshop: "Satisfied with New Work? The effects of changing work on the health and satisfaction of employees"

The third workshop in the "New Work in Public Administration" series of events took place on April 2-3, 2025 with a focus on health and satisfaction in the context of New Work.  The workshop was conducted by the NIPAG under the direction of Prof. Dr. Jan Ziekow and Dr. Silke I. Keil and in cooperation with the subcommittee "General Administrative Organization" (UA AV) of AK VI of the Conference of Interior Ministers in the conference rooms of the Berlin office of the NIPAG. The aim of the workshop was to get to know innovative working models in the context of New Work and to discuss their applicability, opportunities and challenges for public administration on the basis of the speakers' contributions.

Prof. Dr. Jan Ziekow (Institute Director) and Dr. Silke I. Keil (Managing Director) introduced the event and the program. Sebastian Leskien (NIPAG) spoke about the effects of modern working models on the health and satisfaction of employees, explained the challenges and presented insights into the status of implementation in public administration.  Michael Wedl (Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg) gave insights into the organizational form of self-managing teams implemented in his department, i.e. the manager hands over responsibility for certain day-to-day decisions to the team and acts as a coach or moderator for his or her team. In her presentation, Ms Große (degewo) deals with strengthening the self-organization of degewo employees through individual working time models, the promotion of personal initiative and greater personal responsibility.

Professor Claudia Lehmann (Leipzig Graduate School of Management) opened the second day of the event by presenting the key findings of the Leipzig New Work Study and emphasizing the need for skills to implement a New Work strategy. Anja Buskamp (Hamburg Finance Authority) reported on the multifunctional space concept (Multispace) introduced in her authority. The concept has a pilot character within the FHH, which is why a later evaluation of the concept was already announced during the planning phase. Ms. Buskamp also reported on the results of the evaluation. Florian Hoch (Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs) then gave an insight into the design and implementation of a new spatial concept at the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, which has helped to significantly save office space in the ministry while at the same time attracting new staff. He will also discuss hybrid working models, which were tested as part of an accompanied pilot project and were positively received by staff.

Finally, Ms. Becker (Schöneberg Local Court in Berlin) reported on the internal projects she has supported and implemented. These include, above all, the active promotion of a healthy lifestyle and work style for employees.

Under the moderation of Prof. Dr. Jan Ziekow and Dr. Silke Keil, the lessons learned for public administration, which resulted from the various experience reports, were compiled and discussed with the workshop participants in a concluding round of discussions on what groundbreaking insights can be gained from these experiences for public administration in Germany.