Uses of Time

The awards of the Barcelona Award to the Innovative Company in Organization and Time Uses were handed on 15 June in an event intended to recognize organizational changes in a year in which they have been especially necessary.

The ninth edition of the award wanted to acknowledge, promote and disseminate the work of those companies and organisations that are committed to new uses of time linked to the flexibility of time and space, care and co-responsibility, the rationalisation of work time and all those proposals that allow for a better balance between life and work. Between the 22 companies presented, 4 awards and a special mention corresponding to five different categories according to the size of the company or organization were given.

As it has been doing since 2012, the Barcelona Award to the Innovation Company in Organization and Time Uses made visible the work done by companies and organisations that present innovative policies in the management of working people by means of new measures to organise working time, making society aware of these practices.

The award is part of the Pact of Time, a strategy promoted by the City Council of Barcelona that seeks the council commitment and the social and economic organizations of the city, in order to act together and achieve a social organization of time that will provide an effective response to the needs and interests of the people and businesses of the city in the economic, social, cultural, scientific or educational fields.

This ninth edition of the Awards was held in a context when, because of the needs of distance and isolation derived from the pandemic, time management and innovation in the work models are in the public agenda and opinion.

Furthermore, the crisis generated by Covid-19 has placed us in front of a different challenge when we organise ourselves and organise the uses of time. The productive sector has had to rethink the modalities and working spaces, pushing forward policies and innovative working time management measures some of which are candidates for the Award.

This year’s candidacies followed the trend of working towards gender co-responsibility, balance between personal and professional life, teleworking and organisational change, the right to digital disconnection, the compaction of working time, the extension of maternity and paternity leave, the reduction of working time on equal pay, healthy working hours and meals, the management of diversity, etc.

Furthermore, the crisis generated by Covid-19 has placed us in front of a different challenge when we organise ourselves and organise the uses of time. The productive sector has had to rethink the modalities and working spaces, pushing forward policies and innovative working time management measures some of which are candidates for the Award.

The jury's members are expert persons and representatives of the economic, business, trade, trade union and the city's leading academic world. It has representatives from Barcelona Activa, from the Municipal Management of the City Council of Barcelona, Foment del Treball, the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona - Observatory Women, Empresa i Economia, Association 50 X 50, SMEs, ADEIPE, Table of the 3rd Sector, Confederation of Cooperatives of Catalonia (CCC), UGT, CCOO, University of Barcelona, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Council of Women of Barcelona and Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society.

The jury assessed the proposals putting in first place the commitment to balancing the use of time within its organisation and its contribution to innovativeness, advancing and making society aware of the healthier, egalitarian and efficient management of time. There was also a special mention to a company of the NUST Network (New Social Time Uses).

In this ninth edition, the awards received a list of 22 candidates that were presented in the following five categories. And the winners were:

• Espai Ambiental (companies with less than 10 workers): for the reinforcement of the care team, the maximal workweek at 35 hours and the autoregulated schedule flexibility.
• Col·legi Oficial de Psicologia de Catalunya (companies between 10 and 50 workers): for having 20 measures over the convenant such as 100 hours less of work every year.
• Fundació Joia (companies between 50 and 250 workers): for the work of its equality commission improving towards a better work, personal and familiar life.
• Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial (e companies between 50 and 250 workers): for taking care of its workers by implementing emotional and physical health programs.
• AQU Barcelona (Special Mention): for having implemented a virtual work before the pandemic.

The session was led by Aina Galduf, TVE journalist, and started with an opening conference by Raquel Gil, Commissioner for Employment Promotion and Policies against Precariousness of the Barcelona City Council, and Sara Berbel, City Council manager. After that, the expert Leyre Octavio, Executive Director Arquitectura, Head of occupier Solutions Savills Aguirre Newman, imparted the conference ‘To a new work model, what we do now with our spaces?’.

Right after that, there was a dialog about the challenges of the in-person and virtual working model, the speakers were Mònica Vazquez, head of People Area at Suara Cooperativa, Laura Zapata, labour relations director in RACC and Eva Arcos, Health & Safety director at GAES. Finally, the Barcelona Award to the Innovative Company in Organization and Time Uses were given to the winners.

After the award ceremony, Félix Ortega, Barcelona Activa’s director, concluded the session by pointing out the relation between good time management and better quality of life. The director of Barcelona Activa thanked the work of the Jury and the participant companies, also the task of those who work every day for a better time management. Ortega called to a bigger participation for next year’s edition.

The one in 2021 will be the 10th edition of the Awards, which will keep making visible the initiatives and innovative projects in organization and time management and will celebrate this decade of recognizing and working in improving the social uses of time. We encourage you, as Félix Ortega did in the session, to work in this direction and submit the candidacy of your company, organization or social entity to the Barcelona Award to the Innovative Company in Organization and Time Uses 2021.