In recent decades, the contemporary world has had to face a gradual digital transformation, which affects more and more aspects of our life. The continuous development of technologies has also revolutionized the way we do daily work and has allowed companies to introduce innovative working methods. One of the modern forms of work that makes use of technologies is “smart working“.

The restrictions imposed around the world to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have forcibly accelerated its spread. Suddenly, starting from the first lockdown until today, it was necessary to change the approach to work, in fact, many companies have favoured smart working.

Zoom, Skype, Social Networks, Training platforms, blogs, newspapers, software for shared work have come to the aid of a world that has had to “give up” face-to-face relationships, to prefer those that take place behind a screen.

If the advantages of smart working are evident to everyone (greater flexibility at work both in terms of hours and in terms of space, reduction of costs and time related to travel, hypothetical better balance between the worker’s private and professional life, …) disadvantages emerged in their concreteness as the situation linked to the restrictions continued: risk of not separating work and private life, greater isolation of the worker, sometimes ineffective and slower communication, …

On the one hand, therefore, smart working has been able to reconcile the production needs of companies with those of workers’ life-work, on the other, however, it has also proved to be an extremely dangerous tool due to the consequences that could affect both than on the well-being of the worker.

In line with the Program’s priority of addressing digital transformation through the development of digital readiness, resilience and skills, SmartWo intends to share and enhance concepts and practices to allow individuals to better address the challenges related to the (sometimes forced) diffusion of distance. Through a first phase of surveying the experiences experienced by workers and therefore the consequent co-design of training tools, SmartWo aims to create a digital TOOLKIT of knowledge and experiences to better enhance the advantages of remote work and therefore reduce and better manage the disadvantages. The Toolkit will therefore leverage on the enhancement of soft skills and digital skills themselves for a more effective resilience of individuals to the new context that they have often suffered in a passive manner. All this within a European dimension that exploits the possibility of sharing experiences recorded in Italy, the Czech Republic and Latvia.