UZH Future of Work Innovathon successfully concluded
05 December 2022
Click on the picture to watch the course video!
The world of work is changing rapidly: people and organizations need to keep up with an ever-increasing pace of digitalization and growing uncertainty.
This has led to the emergence of a myriad of human challenges for which solutions are yet to be found: from promoting well-being and avoiding emotional exhaustion and burnout, to equipping people with the skills they need to remain employable, to helping people develop and adopt technologies that support humans and enable them to do their best at work, to fostering greater diversity, equality, and inclusion, etc. As a result, the opportunity for people innovation in the future of work is immense.
The University of Zurich (UZH) Innovathon is an open innovation programme that connects Masters and PhD students, researchers and organizations, to jointly solve real challenges related to digitalization. From October 24th to December 5th, 2022, Prof. Dr. Lauren Howe teamed up with the UZH Innovation Hub and the Digital Society Initiative to develop solutions for a future of work that puts people in focus.
Six teams tackled three challenges put forward by Ten23Health, The Adecco Group, and Witzig:
How can workers develop the skills that will be in demand for the jobs that change and are created?
How can organizations that are role-based and non-hierarchical find a fair and flexible salary and merit process that is transparent?
What is a remote work friendly structure and culture ?
The winning team, composed of Erietta-Eirini Douga, Rachelle Haefele, Sarah Hubbauer, and Sandipan Tewary, presented PayMate, a solution guaranteeing a basic revenue and takes the role and soft skills into account to enable growth and innovation.
We are grateful to jury members Harald Gall, Jochen Menges, Rebecca von Cranach, Hanh Xuan Han, Caspar Henke and Marine Marty for their commitment to people innovation and for their insightful questions. Last but not least, we are also grateful to all researchers and facilitators involved for their incredible support, and to all participating students for their enthusiasm, diligence, and creativity.