Home berth for international trade advisers

A MULTI-million-pound support service for North East exporters is turning to smarter working practices to give its staff more face-to-face time with customers and to improve regional productivity.

The Regional International Trade Office (RITO) is being held up as a shining example of the tremendous benefits to businesses that come from ripping up the old working practices rule book in favour of greater flexibility in the workplace.

RITO's home working initiative reinforces the importance of the Work Wise North East campaign which is celebrating Work Wise Week from May 16-22. The week includes National Work From Home Day on Friday, May 18 where employers are being encouraged to discover for themselves the benefits of allowing staff to work from home for the day.

RITO is a subsidiary company of the North East Chamber of Commerce that was set up to deliver a range of programmes for UK Trade & Investment to boost global trade. When it was established, it involved bringing 20 specialist international trade advisers who were previously working for the four sub-regional Business Links.

But with staff located from the Tees Valley up to Northumberland, managers saw the real benefits that could be achieved by home working.

Brendan Murphy, NECC international trade director, said: "It seemed ridiculous to drag people down from Northumberland every day to be in an office when the bulk of their work is done face-to-face with customers.

"Through home working linked to a regional mobile strategy, the advisers are able to give businesses far more of their time by travelling to appointments directly from home. It saves a lot of time, money and effort and the companies are really going to benefit from it."

RITO has also taken advantage of home working technology and installed ADSL business systems enabling staff to work from home but with all the support they would receive in an office.

Work Wise North East aims to consign nine-to-five, five-days-a-week working to history and the promotion of smarter working practices are important steps to creating 21st Century work places that are inclusive to people from all backgrounds and abilities.

Phil Flaxton, Work Wise chief executive, said: "RITO has found a modern day solution to a potentially tricky situation. Congestion is increasingly becoming an issue and requiring staff to travel round the A1 Western bypass to get to work everyday would just add to the problem. Instead, customers will get more time with the advisers who are based from home, that's a tremendous asset and one which will help the North East trade better on the global scale."

Work Wise North East has attracted wide-ranging support from leading organisations in the region. Strategic partners include the TUC, Chamber of Commerce, Onyx Group, EEF Northern, Workplace Travel Planning Company, Dickinson Dees, RBLI, Government Office NorthEast and One NorthEast. Other supporters include the Journal, CBI, Federation of Small Businesses, Northern Business Forum and Women into the Network.

----- Ends -----

For information about Work Wise North East, please contact:
Shelia Chapman, Sheila Chapman PR 07732 827 486 or scpr@btopenworld.com

For further information about the national Work Wise campaign, please contact: Roy Turner, Chelgate PR 020 7939 7939 or 07970 522232 or rt@chelgate.com

Notes to editors:

• A number of spokespersons are available for interview and comment. Please contact Sheila Chapman at contact details below
• Work Wise UK is organized by the IT Forum Foundation, a not-for-profit organization.
• Further information about Work Wise UK can be found on the website www.workwiseuk.org.
• A dedicated electronic media centre has been established for journalists to obtain further information, to download print-quality materials, and to register for media updates about Work Wise UK. This can be accessed either through the main website or directly at www.pressrooms.net/workwiseuk.