Decalogue for Better Time Organisation

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Health

Decalogue for Better Time Organisation

Ten-point plan for a healthier, more egalitarian and more efficient organisation of time at Barcelona City Council.

Barcelona City Council

Spain

Local policy

POLICY OBJECTIVE

Promote a new culture of time in the public administration that is:

Healthy and concerned with individual well-being
Egalitarian, mindful of people’s life cycle and which works towards reducing inequalities
Efficient, flexible and based on trust

Specifically, the plan aims to:

Improve the way time organisation is managed at all levels of the city council
Establish a common framework of do’s and dont’s for time management within the city council
Recommend specific actions that city council employees can apply to their day-to-day work organisation

CONTEXT

Time organisation has nothing to do with constraints such as climate or lifestyle; schedules are dependent on a specific culture and can be changed.
Every year in Spain, we work 300 hours more than people in Germany, though we are ranked among the least productive at European level.
Long and rigid work schedules, paired with the obligation to be on-site at the workplace, imply physical and psychosocial risks, low competitivity levels and more social and gender inequalities.
Men participate in care and domestic work less than women, although their rate of participation is increasing.

POLICY DESCRIPTION

The decalogue emerged as part of the Time Agreement of Barcelona, and aims to move towards a healthier, more egalitarian and more efficient organisation of time. The decalogue offers ten measures that cover various aspects of employees’ reality at the city council:

Striving for more rational meeting schedules
Promoting virtual meetings to reduce the environmental impact
Cutting the number of meetings and making them more productive
Guaranteeing the right to digital disconnection
Avoiding working on weekly rest days
Bringing lunch times forward
Reducing working lunches to a minimum
Promoting a physical and psychosocial health plan for the well-being of people in the organisation and taking into account the use of time
Building a safe and efficient teleworking system through consensus
Disseminating information and promoting greater familiarity with and application of this tenpoint plan in our daily routine.

Communications: infographic, banners, statement and article.

KEY ASPECTS

Involves work across key units in the organisation (HR, internal communication, etc.) and with social stakeholders (trade unions)
Envisions the possibility of a participatory process with employees
Takes into account existing inequalities from a gender perspective (e.g. women shoulder more care responsibilities) and different lifecycle moments
Tailors measures to the specific work schedules of each employee’s group
Publication of the decalogue was followed by a dissemination plan for all employees that included:
- Physical version of the document and associated merchandising (stickers and bookmarks)
- Digital version of the document and associated communication materials

RESULTS

The measures involving time organisation (work flexibility, schedule rationalisation, consideration for life-cycle constraints, reconciliation measures adapted to individual realities, among others) benefit employees because they:

Increase employee satisfaction
Improve working environments
Facilitate reconciliation and promote equal opportunities from a gender perspective
Attract and retain talent within the organisation
Reduce work absenteeism and employees’ rotation

The Decalogue has reached the entire workforce through:

14,000 copies of the decalogue
14,000 stickers
14,000 bookmarks

Policy's Website

Sara

Berbel Sánchez

CEO at the Barcelona City Hall

pactedeltemps@bcn.cat

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