Smarter Working
In sustainability terms, reducing the need for travel is the best option of all.
Measures to reduce travel - like home working or teleconferencing - may require cultural shifts for some organisations but offer solid financial and productivity benefits.
What is Smarter Working?
Smarter working covers a number of measures that can eliminate or reduce the need for travel.
These include:
- flexi-time working
- home working
- compressed working week
- tele and video conferencing
- staff or premises relocation
Improving on-site facilities, such as access to catering outlets, crèches and leisure and banking facilities, can also reduce the need for employees to travel during breaks or to make detours to pick up or drop off children before and after work. Such steps can also reduce the need to travel to work by car.
back to topWhy encourage Smarter Working?
Smarter working is about using our time more effectively, for example by avoiding driving at peak traffic hours when congestion is worst or by choosing to travel by public transport and getting some work done (or relaxing) along the way.
Reducing traffic levels will also mean safer roads in and around Scotland's communities.
If more people adopt smarter working practices, we can:
- ease congestion
- reduce noise pollution
- cut exhaust emissions
For businesses and other organisations, adopting smarter working practices can:
- lower organisational transport costs
- reduce the need for expensive parking lots
- increase productivity by cutting time spent travelling to meetings etc.
- aid staff recruitment and retention by showing flexibility around working hours
- demonstrate commitment to protecting the environment
Easy ways to encourage Smarter Working
Many smarter working practices, such as flexible working and home working, are attractive to employees because they allow them to better adapt their working life to accommodate personal commitments such as to their families.
Be flexible about start and finish times
Allowing workers to start and finish later may help them use public transport or, if they must travel by car, to avoid peak traffic times when fuel (and time) is often wasted in negotiating congested routes. One benefit of staggered arrival and departure times is that you may be able to extend the time when your services and staff are available to clients.
Allow home working where possible
Allowing even just one day a fortnight when employees can elect to work at home will reduce burden on parking facilities and eliminate two whole journeys - a 10% saving on commuting. Many people find home working a useful way to clear difficult tasks that require greater concentration than is possible in a busy office.
Smarter Working & your Travel Plan
Tailored to the specific needs of your organisation, staff, clients and visitors, Travel Plans are integrated packages of measures that you design to promote more sustainable transport choices for your staff, visitors and suppliers.
Formalising a Travel Plan for your organisation will help you get the maximum benefit from encouraging alternative ways to travel.
Bob works from home one day a week. He saves time and money on his commute and the extra peace he finds at home means essential, complex tasks now get the attention they deserve. But that's not the only Smarter Working practice his organisation has benefited from. Flexible working hours means they can now stay open longer and fewer staff get held up in the rush hour. Teleconferencing has boosted productivity by cutting unnecessary journeys too.