Thursay May 15th 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, although Scotland has seen the number of people working from home grow by nearly a quarter in the last decade, the country has the second-lowest level in the UK.

Nearly a quarter of a million Scottish workers - 9.4 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, Scotland has seen a massive 37 per cent increase over the same period. MORE

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 Scotland to become Strategic Partners of Work Wise Scotland.

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 Scotland. The group will also lobby and work to address the challenges facing Scotland 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 constituent country. This national 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

Following on from the successful establishment of Work Wise North East, Work Wise UK  continues to promote the adoption of Smarter Working Practices throughout the Great Britain.

As part of this roll-out throughout England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, we are pleased to announce the launch of a number of new programmes including, Work Wise London (launched on 12th November 2007), Work Wise East (30th November 2007) and Work Wise South East, the date of which will be announced shortly.