promoting flexible working

Flexible working practices can benefit both you as an employer, and your employees.

Flexi-time

Flexibility in the time that you require your staff to start and finish work can mean that previously unviable bus or train journeys now become a real option. Allowing staff to fit their work hours around public transport can also remove the need for them to turn up at work unnecessarily early, or wait around in the cold at the end of the day. It can also remove any fear of disciplinary action as a result of late-running services.

Compressed working week

Such a system allows staff to take off one day a week or one day a fortnight on the condition that they have worked the required hours in advance. For example, someone on a standard 37.5 hour week could take every other Friday off if they simply work an extra half hour each day!

As well as being highly popular with staff and new recruits, the system reduces the number of people arriving at work on any one day, thereby reducing pressure on transport networks and your car park.

Home-working

Real thought should be given to whether any of your staff could work from home when it is appropriate. This option entirely removes the need for travel on some days, while having the added benefit of allowing you to utilise your site more effectively.

2009 figures from Workwise UK show that 16% of employees in the South-West work from home, whereas only 9% do so here in the North East.