Work Wise Week. 12th - 18th May 2013

The aim of Work Wise Week is to promote modern “smarter” working practices such as flexible, remote and mobile working, as well as working from home. It is organised by Work Wise UK, a national not-for-profit initiative, now in its 8th year, and is backed by the TUC, CBI, RAC Foundation and British Chambers of Commerce.

During the recession and current age of austerity, many organisations have realised the benefits of smarter working practices. Enabling staff to work more flexibly has saved costs and at the same time significantly increased staff wellbeing.

Smarter working can also be part of a strategy to reduce the need for downsizing and redundancy.Having a flexible, agile workforce enables organisations to adapt to changing market and funding conditions more easily.

Like the Industrial Revolution, electronic communication advances have enabled working practices to change for the better. New business management approaches allowing a more flexible workforce is helping reduce cost bases and has allowed organisations to better manage their way through difficult times.

And, more importantly, it will help organisations up-scale operations more easily when the upturn comes. Being able to recruit and train staff is always a major obstacle to the economy at that time, often hindering the return to prosperity.

” A key element to smarter working is changing travel patterns. Working from home reduces commuting, mobile and remote working reduces the need to travel to central offices, and flexible working enables staff to avoid peak commuting times.

Work Wise Week presents an ideal opportunity to explore how you and your organisation can boost productivity and efficiency in these straightened times, by implementing smarter working practices. The programme this year will focus on the following:

• Smarter Travel

  Changing the time at which you start your journey or travelling by public transport instead of by car can reduce the peak rush hour, and make the commuting experience far more bearable for many.

• Mobile Working

  Encouraging people to work while on the move, instead of travelling to a central office.

• Virtual Meetings

  Encourage employees and clients to conduct meetings by audio or video conferencing or go online instead of travelling to meetings.

• Working Remotely

  Allow your staff to use remote offices instead of travelling to a central office. These include serviced office space, touch down centres or even hot spots such as coffee shops.

• National Work From Home Day

  The 8th annual National Work from Home Day will again encourage people to work from home for the day instead of commuting to their usual place of work.

David Lennan, former director general of the British Chambers of Commerce and a founding director of StaffShare, a Work Wise UK strategic partner, commented: “There are a range of innovative business management practices that have emerged which have changed the way we work. Smarter working practices have developed as a result of technological advancement and enable a far better use of limited resources and time.

“Secondment and skill sharing is another innovative business practice which is just emerging. During these difficult times, this new smarter way of managing staff is proving an effective alternative to redundancy in many cases, and provides the flexibility to allow organisations to react when the upturn comes.”