Corporate culture and the new workplace at T-Systems
The #peoplemakeithappen cultural transformation In 2022, a great many of the goings-on at T-Systems had to do with “culture and change”. T-Systems launched its “#peoplemakeithappen” cultural initiative back in 2018. #peoplemakeithappen is aimed at the thought and behavior patterns of the company’s employees and managers. It is about delegating responsibility, and engaging in collaboration and self-reflection, on the basis of a common mindset – the “T Mindset.” In this context, the first issue of the culture magazine People Make It Happen was published in English and German at the start of the reporting year. In this issue, employees from all over the world reported on what the T Mindset means for them and how it helps them with their everyday work.
In June 2022, the “Change & Transformation (C&T)” leadership team met to develop approaches to align corporate culture more closely with the company’s success in the long term. Together with other teams at T-Systems, 140 ideas for achieving a better balance between corporate culture and performance were developed. A screening process reduced this lengthy list to ten proposals, from which the C&T leadership team selected three and implemented them during the reporting year. What managers should do:
Take enough time to make the purpose of their individual tasks transparent to employees
Organize regular “Let’s talk” sessions within the teams, ensuring that there is enough room and time for an open exchange regarding employees’ concerns
Set priorities and thus gain time for effective, customer-centric work
We.Work.New. With its We.Work.New. program, T-Systems has made use of the Covid-19 crisis as an opportunity for change. Also, its new hybrid work concept, “activity-based work,” combines the best of two worlds – the home office and the regular office. The basic principle for the concept is “What you do determines where and how you do it.” Teams should have the freedom to decide which activities should take place in which environment.
The company’s offices have also been modified in keeping with the new modes of working. The company opened ten “Meet & Connect Hubs” in Germany in September 2021 and finalized them in the reporting year. Concurrently, the number of standard desk-sharing workplaces was reduced. Individual offices have been done away with completely – even for the company’s top management. Since then, each employee has been assigned to a booking zone, which means they can book desk workplaces within this zone flexibly and on demand, instead of having dedicated offices. This is an ideal prerequisite for seamless, cross-unit collaboration. State-of-the-art hardware and software, as well as new tools for international collaboration, are rounding out the transformation.
In the framework of the “Return to Office” program, many employees started returning to the offices from March 2022 onward. On this occasion, the T-System teams at the ten “Meet & Connect Hubs" celebrated the “Reconnect Days” with many special events.
After these “Reconnect Days”, T-Systems conducted a global employee survey to measure satisfaction with the events and facilities of the “Meet & Connect Hubs”. Questions included the frequency of office visits and potential reasons why employees prefer to work from home. Over 1 000 employees participated in the survey. The analysis of the survey revealed that aside from informal discussions, events and meetings with colleagues are the main reason why many T-Systems employees come to the office locations.
The “We.Work.New” project was officially concluded in late September 2022. The activity-based new way of working has become well established in the meantime.
Agile transformation Agile transformation at T-Systems continued to pay a major role in 2022. To put the entire company on an agile footing, T-Systems established lean portfolio management during the reporting year, another element of enterprise agility. In contrast to classic project management, this method makes it possible to align the portfolio and strategy in such a way as to ensure that the “right solution” can always be provided at the “right time,” helping to increase the efficiency of the processes. The number of employees who use agile principles in their different methods and forms increased by 30 percent after the new approach was introduced. In addition, the flexible organization, which was already established across the board in Germany, was incrementally rolled out worldwide in the reporting year. To this end, managers and T-Systems were given training and reinforcement with regard to their role and that of collaboration within a flexible organization. Over 90 percent of managers at international level took part in this training in 2022. What’s more, T-Systems embedded the Objectives by Key Results (OKR) method throughout its organization, following its introduction in 2021. Among other elements, experts developed training formats for teaching agile work methods.
The #peoplemakeithappen cultural transformation
In 2022, a great many of the goings-on at T-Systems had to do with “culture and change”. T-Systems launched its “#peoplemakeithappen” cultural initiative back in 2018. #peoplemakeithappen is aimed at the thought and behavior patterns of the company’s employees and managers. It is about delegating responsibility, and engaging in collaboration and self-reflection, on the basis of a common mindset – the “T Mindset.” In this context, the first issue of the culture magazine People Make It Happen was published in English and German at the start of the reporting year. In this issue, employees from all over the world reported on what the T Mindset means for them and how it helps them with their everyday work.
In June 2022, the “Change & Transformation (C&T)” leadership team met to develop approaches to align corporate culture more closely with the company’s success in the long term. Together with other teams at T-Systems, 140 ideas for achieving a better balance between corporate culture and performance were developed. A screening process reduced this lengthy list to ten proposals, from which the C&T leadership team selected three and implemented them during the reporting year. What managers should do:
We.Work.New.
With its We.Work.New. program, T-Systems has made use of the Covid-19 crisis as an opportunity for change. Also, its new hybrid work concept, “activity-based work,” combines the best of two worlds – the home office and the regular office. The basic principle for the concept is “What you do determines where and how you do it.” Teams should have the freedom to decide which activities should take place in which environment.
The company’s offices have also been modified in keeping with the new modes of working. The company opened ten “Meet & Connect Hubs” in Germany in September 2021 and finalized them in the reporting year. Concurrently, the number of standard desk-sharing workplaces was reduced. Individual offices have been done away with completely – even for the company’s top management. Since then, each employee has been assigned to a booking zone, which means they can book desk workplaces within this zone flexibly and on demand, instead of having dedicated offices. This is an ideal prerequisite for seamless, cross-unit collaboration. State-of-the-art hardware and software, as well as new tools for international collaboration, are rounding out the transformation.
In the framework of the “Return to Office” program, many employees started returning to the offices from March 2022 onward. On this occasion, the T-System teams at the ten “Meet & Connect Hubs" celebrated the “Reconnect Days” with many special events.
After these “Reconnect Days”, T-Systems conducted a global employee survey to measure satisfaction with the events and facilities of the “Meet & Connect Hubs”. Questions included the frequency of office visits and potential reasons why employees prefer to work from home. Over 1 000 employees participated in the survey. The analysis of the survey revealed that aside from informal discussions, events and meetings with colleagues are the main reason why many T-Systems employees come to the office locations.
The “We.Work.New” project was officially concluded in late September 2022. The activity-based new way of working has become well established in the meantime.
Agile
transformation
footing, T-Systems established lean portfolio management during the reporting year, another element of enterprise agility 
. In contrast to classic project management, this method makes it possible to align the portfolio and strategy in such a way as to ensure that the “right solution” can always be provided at the “right time,” helping to increase the efficiency of the processes. The number of employees who use agile principles in their different methods and forms increased by 30 percent after the new approach was introduced. In addition, the flexible organization, which was already established across the board in Germany, was incrementally rolled out worldwide in the reporting year. To this end, managers and T-Systems were given training and reinforcement with regard to their role and that of collaboration within a flexible organization. Over 90 percent of managers at international level took part in this training in 2022. What’s more, T-Systems embedded the Objectives by Key Results (OKR 
) method throughout its organization, following its introduction in 2021. Among other elements, experts developed training formats for teaching agile work methods.
Agile transformation at T-Systems continued to pay a major role in 2022. To put the entire company on an agile