Dr Yvonne Doyle, regional director of public health and medical director of the Government Office for the South East and the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority, has been appointed chair of Work Wise South East.
Work Wise South East promotes smarter working practices, such as flexible working, working from home, mobile and remote working, in the South East. The not-for-profit initiative is backed nationally by the TUC, CBI, British Chambers of Commerce, Transport for London and BT, among others. It was launched in 2006 with the aim of encouraging up to 11 million people, up to half the UK's working population, to work smarter.
Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, said: "The South East, with its high concentration of commuters, is the region that could benefit most from the adoption of smarter working. Dr Doyle will help us promote its wide range of benefits to organisations and employers across the region."
Dr Doyle said: "The benefits of smarter working are unarguable: in terms of improved productivity, in terms of health and welfare, sustainability and the environment.
"Work Wise has taken massive steps forward in the promotion of smarter working practices since it was launched in 2006. The successes of Work Wise Week in the spring and Commute Smart Week in the autumn have both raised the profile of smarter working.
"The Work Wise Standard, which was launched in 2007, provides organisations with a clear path to introduce smarter working, and the target of achieving the standard to demonstrate that progress.
"Another innovation launched earlier this year is StaffShare. This enables employers to offer currently under-utilised staff to other organisations a secondment basis. The initiative will help companies avoid losing trained, skilled employees during the current period of economic adjustment."
Work Wise South East promotes smarter working within the area covered by the South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA). Dr Doyle will be chairing the organising group consisting of SEEDA, the South East England Regional Assembly, NHS South East Coast, NHS South Central, BT, Centrica, First Great Western and Work Wise UK. Other organisations from both the public and private sectors will be joining over the coming months.
"Workwise is aligned with the need to improve the health & wellbeing of the workforce and as such is part of the implementation of the employment & health theme of the South East England Health Strategy, said Dr Doyle. Through the work of the strategy we are working with partners in a constructive manner to promote health and economic well-being and to ensure that the consequences of the economic downturn do not widen inequalities, or create avoidable hardships which impact on the health of the population.
Work Wise South East wants to revolutionise the way the region works, The aim is to break down established and outdated working culture and traditions which emanate from two centuries ago. They are wasteful in terms of resources and time, damaging in terms of the environment and global warming, unhealthy in terms of worker wellbeing, and frustrating in terms of traffic congestion and public transport over-crowding.
"The situation will get worse. Even with the current recession, over the next ten years, predictions are that there will be a 31 per cent increase in passenger miles by rail and underground, and a 15 per cent increase in bus miles.
"The South East has to make changes to avoid companies and people migrating to other parts of the country due to these growing transport problems. The region, which currently boasts the highest GDP per person in the UK, has to protect its position by taking steps to maintain competitiveness and productivity. This can be achieved through businesses adopting smarter working practices."
Further information about Work Wise South East, the Work Wise Standard, StaffShare and Work Wise advisers can be found on the website (www.workwiseuk.org).
