A cure for commuter pain?
As papers carried the news today that overcrowding on the railways is going to get 'substantially worse' and with many commuters still smarting from rail and tube strikes earlier in the year and the announcement last month that the cost of season tickets would rise by 10 per cent or more than the retail price index over the next five years, you could be forgiven for wondering whether there was an alternative to the daily commute.
With recent huge strides in techology, it is now quite possible for many employees to work flexibly from home - so long as they can persuade their employer! This may not be as difficult as you think.
An Equal Opportunities Commission report in 2007 highlighted that flexible working can bring environmental benefits with positive returns for climate change mitigation and reducing transport congestion. It identified the fact that during any major disruptive incidents (strike, fire, the loss of key utilities such as heating in offices, security alerts including terrorism), those organisations that had adopted innovative ways of working would have a better guarantee of 'business as usual' than those dependent on a central office base.
BT has seen an increase in home-working and experienced a 20.6 per cent reduction in energy useage since 1991; has saved 84,000 litres of heating oil and reduced its metered water consumption by 5 per cent on levels between 2000-2002. CO2 emissions have also been significantly reduced - BT estimates that it is down 60 per cent on 1996.
Managers may fear that staff working from home are less engaged or less productive than their office based colleagues but several studies would refute this concern.
A recent report produced by the Family Friendly Working Hours Taskforce (established in November 2009 by the Secretary for State for the Department for Work and Pensions) included an interesting case study:
PI Costing is a niche company undertaking legal services on behalf of solicitors and employs about 20 employees. Director Teresa Aitken is committed to adopting innovative ways of working and staff are encouraged to work from home. The company was initially concerned that homeworkers might come to feel like 'outsiders' but the issue was addressed in a number of ways, including open lines of communication and obligatory attendance once a month at staff meetings in the office.
Aitken believes that the type of work performed by the company lends itself to work-life balance policies. Professional staff drafting legal charges don't need to be office based - a computer and internet connection at home is all they need to do the job effectively. The company has found that compared with those who remain office-based, staff working from home achieve efficiencies of 20 per cent or more in terms of output.
So, if your heart sank at the news today and you think you could work from home with a computer and an internet connection, why not ask your boss about working flexibly from home - savings in overheads and an increase in efficiency (not to mention staff morale and loyalty) may be enough to convince him and set you free!
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