Uses of Time

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Nust Network and the coincidence of this anniversary with the context of social emergency due to the pandemic, which at the same time has been an unexpected engine for progress in working time policies and has given an impetus to change the ways of working and has accelerated the test of change in many organizations, the Network wanted to reaffirm the validity and validity of its mission through the monographic workshop "XNUST: milestones, challenges and future projects", held on October 5 virtually. 

The workshop, in which several members of the Motor Group and the Technical Secretariat participated, served to specify the future focus of the NUST Network, the first of which is "influence". In this sense, the Network wants to contribute to generate opinion and evidence on the impacts and benefits of these changes, all indicating the task it has had in the dissemination of this knowledge but also the intention to go a step further in this direction, especially through professional social networks such as Linkedin. 

The second pillar marked was "Recognize", which refers to the fact of improving the projection and reputation of the companies committed to this change and generating and projecting referents. At a time when the reputation of companies in relation to time management is increasingly important, it was agreed to highlight the need to open a reflection on who and under what conditions can be part of the Network and what it implies to do so.

It was reflected on the fact that currently there are few verification mechanisms both in relation to the commitment to the Network and to the values and practices it promotes, and that it is necessary to specify whether being a member of the Network means only being interested in the issues it promotes or also having the strict will to follow this path and learn how to do it. Although companies must undergo an interview to become members of the NUST Network, the monographic workshop reflected on the fact that, if NUST companies must be exemplary and referential, it would be necessary to establish a verification mechanism to validate them and guarantee that the company's practices are coherent with the principles promoted and defended by the Network. 

After offering various proposals to resolve this process and assuming that these may exceed the capabilities of the Network itself, it was agreed to look more deeply into two issues: firstly, to organize the Network in some way in terms of internal organization, and secondly, to evaluate different mechanisms for managing the reputation associated with the Network. 

"Facilitating" was the third step that was reflected on as the capacity to consolidate the Network as a framework for exchange and learning on key and innovative topics and to contribute to identifying and disseminating models and good reference practices. It was pointed out that it is necessary to make more use of the knowledge of the people and companies in the Network to carry out training or agree on criteria or guidelines and that, at the present time, it may be interesting to analyze what has worked and what has not gone well in order to face future challenges. 

Finally, the fourth accent was "Connect", which refers to the intention to explore synergies, create links and collaborative relationships with other organizations and networks of different nature and territorial scope that share the same purpose. The Network was committed to internationalization, giving it greater visibility in order to make it better known, taking into account start-ups that already incorporate time policies in their DNA and promoting a greater vision of the territory beyond Barcelona.