Since the end of 2000, alternating teleworking has been trialled in a controlled manner for around 160 employees at the Heinrich Böll Foundation's headquarters in Berlin, with a view to introducing it permanently if necessary. This process was designed and moderated by the IZT, which provided scientific and advisory support until the first evaluation phase after 8 months. In an approx. 14-month pilot testing phase (10/2000 - 12/2001), 10 employees from two "pilot teams" initially worked at home for one to three days a week. Due to the consistently positive evaluation and after a third team had already been added, the regular "introduction for all" was to follow in 2002 as part of a design and organisational development process.
Workshops, individual and group interviews and checklists were used in the pilot phase. From June 2000, the motivations of all those involved were surveyed by the IZT or with its support, a "Telework Steering Group" was constituted and moderated, checklists drawn up, a company agreement concluded and the pilot participants selected. The necessary work organisation agreements were drawn up with both pilot teams and preparations were made for setting up the teleworking stations, which then took place in October/November 2000. An innovative "thin client" technology was used, which realised almost identical technical conditions at the teleworking workstations as at the central workstation. An interim evaluation took place in summer 2001 with the involvement of the IZT. At the end of 2001, a co-operation with Deutsche Telekom on teleworking was also agreed.