Drawing up a Guideline for Handling Information and Communication Technology, Flexibility and Availability in Small and Medium Enterprises

Background Within the last decades the world of work has changed enormously. Due to new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), working at any time from any place has become possible. Flexibility, availability and the dissolution of boundaries between work and private life are the possible results of this development. The spread of this development and possible consequences on the affected employee's health and wellbeing have been examined so far especially in big companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are rarely subjects of scientific studies in this context. Objective of this paper The aim of this work was to develop a guideline based on experiences and results of a study regarding flexibility in the business world (FlexA), as well as a systematic literature research. The target populations of this guideline are SMEs, focusing on integrating a health promoting way in dealing with ICT, flexibility and availability within the corporate culture. Methods In order to delineate the current state in of research in ICT-related work interventions, a systematic review in data bases e.g. PsycINFO, EconLit and Medline was carried out. The search strategy used the key words work, intervention, ICT, mental strain, flexibility and availability. In addition, grey literature and findings from the FlexA study were used to formulate the current guideline. Results Based on the exclusion criteria, all studies from the systematic literature search were excluded after title and abstract screening. Within grey literature research, 4 relevant publications could be identified. The measures, developed during the corporate workshops of the FlexA study, e.g. the implementation of collective regulations in the company, were included in the guideline. Conclusion Due to the ongoing development of ICT and flexibility in daily business life, it is getting more and more important to follow this progress. Executives and corporate management are responsible to actively shape this trend in a health-promoting way in their enterprises. The current guideline was made to support the corporate management in this task and it is an important instrument for a health-promoting use of ICT in daily business life taking in to consideration flexibility and availability.