Smarter Working - Further Measures
This section details further measures you may wish to implement as part of your Travel Plan that can encourage smarter working within your organisation.
Flexible working
If your organisation does not do so already, you could consider introducing a system of flexible working whereby staff are able to structure their work time within an agreed framework.
This can include:
- Flexi-time - where staff can choose how weekly or annual hours are worked.
- Flexi-hours - where staff are allowed to come in and leave earlier or later.
- Flexi-working - where staff can work overtime and take that time off in lieu.
Flexi-time could involve staff being allowed to choose their daily start and finish times (possibly different for each day of the week), but having to stick to the times that they choose.
Alternatively, they could be allowed complete flexibility outside core hours. The latter system would require staff to keep a detailed record of their hours worked, possibly including start and finish times for each day (unless your organisation operates a 'Time and Attendance System').
Flexible working enables staff journeys to and from work to fit around public transport timetables and avoids the need for all your staff to travel during the peak hours, thereby helping to alleviate congestion on your site and on the local road network.
Flexible working also enables staff to adapt to out-of-work commitments - such as escorting children to and from school - without having to resort to the car to meet these commitments.
back to topCompressed working week
A compressed working week is a form of flexible working by allowing staff to take, for example, one day per fortnight or one day per week off if they work the required hours in advance. Such a proposal is likely to be very well received by your staff. An extended working day also means that your staff will be available to your organisation’s customers for longer.
Working from home
Though this approach may not be suitable for all employees, or employers, if some members of staff are able to work from home one day a week, or once a fortnight, it can have the same impact on car use as flexible working.
Whilst there may be a perception among managers that productivity is diminished, evidence suggests that working from home can lead to increased efficiency (through smarter working) and thereby lead to increased productivity.
There can also be positive effects on morale, and valuable desk space can be released. It is important to note that providing laptop PCs for staff to use when working from home is not a taxable benefit.
If you have a large number of employees who are based on the road, you may wish to consider setting them up to work from home and use the post to deliver their supplies. This will reduce the requirement for staff to store supplies or to come to your offices.
Remember that Health and Safety issues for those working from home, such as proper set up of workstations, will also need to be addressed.
Teleworking & Teleconferencing
With improvements in IT, you may wish to consider the introduction of teleworking, whereby your employees work away from your organisation's workplace, either at home or at a satellite office.
Depending on the type of work the employees do, and how frequently they will telework, you may need to consider setting up e-mail connections and office facilities, such as a fax machine and a designated telephone line at your employees' home or satellite office.
You may want to consider a system of 'hot-desking' for teleworkers needing to spend a day or two in the office each week. Hot-desking involves one desk shared between several people who use the desk at different times. This work surface could be an actual desk or just a terminal link.
Teleconferencing means communicating with other people using video and/or audio-conferencing facilities. Video-conferencing allows business meetings to be conducted from a distance, typically over a network such as the internet or telephone line, with participants and documents viewed on-screen.
You can buy 'off-the-shelf' video-conferencing technology which provides an alternative to travelling long distances to meetings - saving both time and money, and increasing the productivity of your staff.
Both 'ends' of the meeting will require the equipment, but this could be an ideal solution if you have a number of sites and your staff spend a large amount of time travelling to meetings at the different sites.
On-site facilities
If your organisation is large enough, or if you can team up with other organisations nearby, you could consider provision of on-site leisure and crèche facilities. This will help to cut down the numbers of trips your staff make before and after work and at lunchtime. It may also reduce the need to drive to work at all.
Provision of catering and banking facilities could also help to reduce numbers of staff who choose to travel off-site during the lunchtime period. You could negotiate with a local caterer to come onto your site to during lunchtime.
