Will organisations embrace new government incentives for introducing flexible working?
Enabling employees to work from home is the surefire way of easing transport congestion and commuting nightmares and the government is discussing flexible working incentives to achieve this (though it is not clear exactly what these will be).
But if plans are realistically going to work, the government also needs to help advise employers in practical, technical solutions which enable their employees to access not only their regular IT systems but also to answer their incoming calls on their regular phone number. By doing this there will be no need to change published phone numbers or any need to give out mobile numbers. Calls can be re-routed at the local telecoms exchange to home phones, mobile phones, or indeed any phone anywhere.
Moving from a permanent office based culture to one of flexibile working is not always an easy transition, more often than not because managers fear losing control. The key to its success is to make it as seamless as possible for employees, colleagues, customers and the general public so that customer service is not impeded in any way. Systems and processes need to be adapted, not changed to make this transition easier.
The government is planning to offer incentives to employers to encourage increased flexible working practices which will contribute to the government’s drive to slash transport congestion. The aim is to urge employers to let their staff work from home, where possible, one day every fortnight. The introduction of more flexible working hours will also be encouraged to reduce the strain on transport ‘rush hours’.
Train companies are also being approached to revise how season tickets are sold so that employees are not having to pay for train fares when they are not in the office. One suggestion is to change to a European style ‘carnet’ system where a book of tickets are issued and used as and when required.
At last the government is buying in to the cost savings and transport benefits of flexible working. Let’s hope they follow through and we can all get back to working productively without the commuting stress.
