The battle to embed smarter working in the UK’s working culture is less about developing technology to enable it – indeed those technologies (including Yuuguu) already exist – than it is about changing attitudes. One of the roles of Work Wise UK, a not-for-profit body with public and private sector backing, is to help do just that.
Organised by the IT Forum Foundation, but backed by industry bodies such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) - as well as strategic partners such as Transport for London and BT - Work Wise UK unites the public and private sectors to help the UK economy become one of the most progressive in the world through the adoption of smarter working.
Launched with Work Wise Week 2006, the initiative has worked with government to develop a vision for smarter working in the UK and set itself the goal of enabling half the UK working population – about 14 million people – to have the opportunity to work more flexibly by the end of 2011.
To do this, it provides practical advice for employers and their staff about how they can develop smarter working practices through more flexible hours and flexible working locations. But, it also has a broader and potentially more crucial role: to help enable a shift in attitudes to flexible working that, eventually, will help make smarter working part of our commercial culture.
Phil Flaxton, job title of Work Wise, UK explains: “Technology is an enabler – you can’t employ smarter working practices without it. But, fundamentally, the whole reason that Work Wise UK exists is to help bring about a change in attitudes among both employers and employees.”
The benefits of flexible working in terms of the environment, transport congestion and quality of life are obvious, and, while it continues to promote these benefits as a key part of its vision, what’s most crucial about Work Wise’s role is to address negative perceptions and demonstrate to businesses – and their employees – the ease with which more flexible practices can be adopted.
To do this, Work Wise UK seeks to embed flexible working in the public consciousness through a programme of initiatives that peaks each year with Work Wise Week. Held in May, Work Wise Week engages the media, businesses and employees in the realities of smarter working practices and culminates in the Work Wise Summit - chaired in 2008 by UK Skills Envoy Sir Digby Jones – as well as National Work from Home Day where businesses are encouraged to try remote working for themselves – even if just for a day.
These events are crucial to raise awareness of the benefits of smarter working, as well as how technology has developed to make it a reality. But, they also help to address a major barrier in increasing the adoption of practices like remote working – the perception that working from home means working less effectively.
Flaxton says there is enough evidence now to demonstrate the flaws in that perception: “Companies like BT have been doing this for over a decade. And they do it because they see very substantial benefits in terms of, for example, productivity, absenteeism and the percentage of their female employees that return to work after maternity leave.”
Smarter working takes two obvious forms: first, to allow more flexible working hours for employees, and, second, to allow more flexible working in terms of location. Both these types of remote working deliver benefits in terms of easing the pressure on the transport infrastructure and better quality of life for employees. Productivity gains, on the understanding that a happier employee makes for a harder working employee, have been found to follow.
But, as Work Wise UK is keen to stress, engaging in smarter working need not mean a complete organisational overhaul. Simple steps can be taken that offer immediate benefits with little disruption. For example, during Work Wise Week 2008, it offered five simple ways in which businesses could try out smarter working:
1. Allow staff to start an hour later or an hour earlier – but work the same number of hours. This enables staff to work hours that might be more suitable for them and avoid busier travelling tim
2. Allow staff to take half an hour for lunch during the week and leave work at 3pm on Friday. More flexible times enable staff that would prefer a longer weekend to remain just as productive
3. Allow staff to work from home on National Work from Home Day (this year that was Thursday, 15th May). If adopted by a larger proportion of organisations, just one day per week would have a significant impact on congestion and also help address perceptions about the productivity costs of allowing staff to work from home
4. Replace external face-to-face meetings with video or phone conference calls. This would demonstrate the potential of technology to increase the amount of time staff spend working and reduce the amount of time they spend travelling
5. Where appropriate, allow staff to roster their own shifts
These simple steps can be adopted by companies as a test of smarter working to gauge its relevance for their business and the true impact of such practices on the efficiency of their employees.
Under the Work Wise UK national umbrella, initiatives have been established in all of the UK’s major regions. For example, the North East has already declared its intention to become the ‘smartest working region in the UK’, recently securing £154,000 in funding from the One NorthEast Regional Development Agency to help in the effort.
Margaret Fay, One NorthEast chairman explained at the time why the Work Wise initiative was seen as so important: “Helping employers explore new ways of offering flexible working is not only important in helping to attract and keep highly-skilled people in the North East, enabling more people to play their part in the economy and reducing the impact of congestion on the environment, but also in maximising competitiveness and productivity during the global slowdown we’re facing at the moment.”
Crucially, the funding will play a key role in boosting the numbers of Work Wise Advisers available to employers and employees in the region. Available throughout the UK, advisers are recruited experts that can help businesses and their staff get the most from smarter working with practical advice including HR, employment law, and the information and communication technologies (ICT) available to support it all.
Additionally, Work Wise UK publishes a number of case studies from organisations as diverse as Nationwide Building Society and Kinder Castle Day Nursery in West Yorkshire on why they have introduced smarter working practices and how to make it work, whatever the scale and sector of a business.
These case studies make clear that UK businesses are beginning to understand the fundamental shift that needs to take place - to think about the performance of their workforce not in terms of attendance but in terms of delivery. It is a shift that ICT technologies such as Yuuguu are enabling and one that Work Wise UK plays a crucial role in helping to take place.
For more information on the Work Wise UK initiative, go to http://www.workwiseuk.org/.