Thursday 15th May was National Work from Home Day when up to five million people are estimated to have worked from home across the UK.

According to TUC research, the East of England has the second highest level of people working from home in the UK, a total that has grown by 28 per cent in the last decade.

Nearly 400,000 workers - 14.4 per cent of the regional working population - are now based at or usually work from home. If figures for employed people who are normally or permanently based at home, but not self-employed, are analysed, the East of England has seen a massive 45 per cent increase over the same period. MORE

Friday November 30th 2007 saw the launch of Work Wise UK in the East of England.
The morning event, held at Chesterford Research Park, Saffron Walden was a mix of short presentations and a choice of workshops, ensuring that delegates had plenty of opportunity to gain deeper understanding on specific aspects of working wise including reducing business mileage, increasing productivity and meeting legal requirements for staff requesting flexible working.

Edmund King, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation gave the keynote address, and David Lennan, Chairman of Work Wise UK, introduced the Work Wise campaign and what it means for the East of England. PICTURES

Delegates also had the opportunity to sign the Work Wise Concordat and find out about how to achieve the Work Wise Standard.

Workshops covered the following topics:

1. Regulatory Flexibility - understanding the legal dimensions of flexible working
Facilitator - Barry Clarke, Associate, Byrne Dean

Parents of children under 6 and carers of older dependent children and adults now have a 'right to request' flexible work. Cabinet ministers and opposition spokespersons have called for this to be extended to all the workforce. What does this mean for UK employers? There is also uncertainty over issues such as Health & Safety, taxation and insurance. This workshop session  looked at the realities, myths and fears about the regulatory aspects of flexible working.

2. New Organisations, New Cultures
Facilitator - Lynette Swift
Speakers - Christiane Perera, Oxford Actuaries

This workshop looked at how to build new ways of working into organisations. Two very different organisations presented how they have embedded smarter working into their organisations and achieved the flexible working culture to make it succeed.
Oxford Actuaries began life as a virtual company - and has remained so as it has grown to have 35 employed staff. OAC staff have all the systems and support of a traditional office but accessed remotely, from wherever they may be, over an innovative digital infrastructure. Staff have no need to commute, can have a healthy work-life balance, and the company's carbon footprint is dramatically lower than similar sized businesses.

3. Flexible Working - A Strategic & Evidence based approach
Facilitator/Speakers - Bob Crichton , HOP Associates

This workshop focused on how to develop flexible working in your organisation, how to decide on the best solutions, and how to measure and maximise the benefits.
This session included presentations from Bob Crichton of Cambridge-based HOP Associates, who have developed numerous implementations of flexible work across the UK, and from an Eastern region local authority that has one the most extensive flexible working implementations in the region.

4. Work Wise with Technology
Facilitator - Catherine Turner, eBusiness Forum Ltd
Speakers - Matt Eccles, Dell, Mike Jones - BT, Peter Banks - Datapartners Internet

Many of your Work Wise plans will involve changes to your use of technology. This session brought together experts on data and voice over IP, web applications, hardware and IP networking and mobile phone technologies.

As part of the UK-Wide Work Wise Campaign, we are continuing to expand the regional and devolved adminstration programme and are now looking for progressive organisations in the East of England to become Strategic Partners of Work Wise East.

This vanguard group will be tasked with developing a programme of activities to share best practice and seek opportunities for joint working, as well as promoting the benefits of smarter working to other businesses and organisations across the East of England. The group will also lobby and work to address the challenges facing the East of England and to alleviate the blockages to the adoption of smarter working, whether they are technological, cultural, skills or infrastructure, related.

Regional programmes including Work Wise London, Work Wise North East and others have already been established and we are now calling for public and private sector enterprise to help lead the programme to encourage the adoption of smarter working practices in this region. This regional initiative will feed into Work Wise UK and its new Centre of Excellence and partner organisations will not only be able to benefit from shared best practice but also by becoming key influencers in the regional adoption of smarter working practices.  

If you want advice on how your organisation can  work smarter, Work Wise UK provides a list of accredited Work Wise Advisers, who can help you plan and execute your next steps, at whatever stage of the journey you are on.

If you would be interested in submitting a case study on how your organisation has benefited from smarter working or would like to become a Vanguard Group Partner, please contact us.

If you would like to consider committing to smarter working, and to sign the concordat, please let us have your details by completing the online form.

To view the entire concordat as a pdf, click here

To view the list of organisations, who have already signed the concordat click here

Building on the success of Work Wise Week 2007, this year's Work Wise Week will commence with our annual National Work from Home Day on Thursday 15th May. Media events during the Week will cover the many aspects of smarter working practices and unlike in previous years, will end with the Work Wise Summit on Wednesday 21st May, which will again be held at the QEII Conference in Westminster, London. To see highlights of last year's summit click here