On Monday, 17 November, the Steering Group of the NUST Network — Network of Companies for a New Working Time — together with representatives from the city council and the technical secretariat, met online for the last meeting of the year.
The session had as its main objectives to review the actions carried out during 2025, rethink the role of the Network, plan its future and begin work linked to the commemoration of the Network’s 20th anniversary, which will be celebrated in 2026.
Activity review 2025
Maria Rengel, Director of Feminisms and LGTBI Services at Barcelona City Council, welcomed the attendees. Laura de Caralt, head of time policies at the Directorate of Feminisms and LGTBI Services, and Ariadna Margalef, from the Technical Service of the NUST Network, reviewed the main actions of the year: training activities, events, time‑management consulting, and communication and recognition actions.
During 2025, the City Council offered three training modules focused on topics of interest to Network companies: two on artificial intelligence and one on teleworking. In addition, work has been carried out on two new practical guides, to be published soon, aimed at improving time use in the hospitality sector and in shift work management, both areas where implementing time‑related measures is usually more complex.
Regarding presence at events, the Network’s participation in the 11th edition of Time Use Week (TUW 2025), the main international event on time policies, co‑organized by Barcelona City Council, stands out.
The SURT Foundation and El Risell, companies that are members of the Network, took part in the workshop “Reducing working hours without losing productivity: how to do it in your SME”, led by economist Joan Sanchis, where they shared their experience reducing the working week to 36.5 and 35 hours, respectively. The session was held during the final day of TUW 2025, which took place within the BizBarcelona fair.
This year has seen the consolidation of the expansion of the Advisory Service for Equality and Time Organization, which has incorporated a new support service for organizations to implement time‑management measures, thus responding to a demand from member companies. In the pilot phase, the Barcelona Youth Council (training on organizing time in teams), ACCU Catalunya (establishing a protocol for compensating hours and regulating digital disconnection) and Magnètica (implementing measures to optimize time in team coordination and meeting management) have taken part.
In terms of communication actions to increase awareness and encourage organizations to join, the creation of a new leaflet for the Network is noteworthy; it includes information about the services offered by the Network, the commitments involved in being a member, the joining process, and the experience of member companies with notable trajectories. The Network has also maintained its presence on LinkedIn, on the Time Uses website and in the Time Dossiers, with plans to publish a new dossier dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Finally, this year the City Council has drawn up the first Time Policy Plan with the aim of incorporating the temporal perspective into all municipal policies. This plan includes, among its objectives, promoting the growth of the NUST Network, strengthening municipal support resources and defining a communication strategy that identifies, recognizes and gives visibility to existing good practices.
20th anniversary in 2026
The year 2026 is a key date in the NUST Network’s calendar, as it marks 20 years since its creation. During the second part of the Steering Group meeting, Ariadna Güell, from the Technical Service of the NUST Network, led a co‑creation workshop with the participating companies to define the strategy for the coming year.
Participants reflected on three key axes (growth, visibility and value) and contributed the following ideas:
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Growth in membership: carrying out “door‑to‑door” actions, prioritizing sectors that find it most difficult to implement time‑management measures due to a lack of resources, and promoting agreements and collaborations with organizations linked to social responsibility.
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Increased internal and external visibility of the Network’s work, its member companies and good practices: creation of a long‑lasting product, compilation of milestones achieved over the last 20 years, creation of a quality label for leading companies, and strengthening of digital communication.
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Improved value provided by membership in the Network: creation of small thematic groups to exchange good practices, creation of a direct communication channel between companies to address regulatory changes and emerging needs, and development of short, specific training capsules.
These lines of action will guide the activities in 2026 to encourage new memberships and strengthen recognition of the Network and its companies as benchmarks for a new work culture, in the context of the celebration of the Network’s twentieth anniversary.