Fear of disruption prompted many businesses to try home working during the London Olympics. Such flexibility could also make a winning difference to sustainability, productivity and wellbeing
Less travel. Less spending on fares or fuel. More time. A better work/life balance.
These are some of the benefits that employees can enjoy if they stay away from the office for as little as one day each week, according to a major survey by Global Action Plan, a UK environmental charity.
And employers will not only reap the same or higher levels of productivity, via a more contented and focused workforce, but they will also be able to trumpet substantial cuts in carbon emissions.
With transport emissions still rising sharply, the need for such a radical shift in working practices is crucial, Global Action Plan argues.
In the UK, transport accounts for 34% of energy demand (and 70% of petroleum demand). Prices for both energy and transport are likely to continue rising in the coming years, with government likely to shape demand via taxes, tolls and road pricing.
At the same time, greatly improved technology in the form of video and teleconferencing, intranet and other software has made the logistics of remote working easier.
However, in order to be effective, such a change requires not only careful planning but also a rethink in a whole organisation’s culture, with all employees buying into the notion – even if home working will not suit everyone personally.
“For the right company it has got so many benefits it’s really a no-brainer,” says Trewin Restorick, chief executive of Global Action Plan, whose report, Business In Motion, resulted from a nine-month research project involving 150 organisations, including multinationals, SMEs, public sector groups and charities.
Olympic concerns
In the run-up to the London Olympics, several UK government departments and companies including Accenture, O2 and Sainsbury’s voiced concerns to Global Action Plan about the impact on travel to, from and within work. The organisation also had talks with Transport for London (TFL), which echoed these worries.
“We were getting a lot of businesses coming to us saying they were struggling with travel, so we decided to do the research. The Olympics were really a catalyst for something but the question is how many of them are going to continue with that working policy now the games are in the past,” Restorick says.
Many companies in London and surrounding areas introduced or stepped up remote working during the games. These measures included video and teleconferencing, phone calls instead of one-to-one meetings, and writing reports from home.
One of the larger companies on this drive in the longer term is O2. Almost 3,000 staff work at its head office in Slough, Berkshire. The mobile phones giant, part of Telefónica, has made home working an integral part of its daily operations.
Simon Miller, deputy head of public affairs at O2, says the company started its flexible working drive with a one-day shutdown of its HQ in February 2012. All bar a skeleton staff worked from home and, thanks to careful preparation, no serious IT or other problems emerged.
Now every directorate – there are eight – must work flexibly at least one day a week from Tuesday to Thursday. In practice it means several hundred people are out of the office each day, who would previously have been there.
The policy is collective and consensual rather than compulsory. If for whatever reason individual staff are unable to work from home – lack of space, domestic pressures etc – they of course continue to come to the Slough office. Just under two-thirds of staff there are now working from home more than once a week, according to O2’s latest survey. “It’s a case of what works best for family requirements and work requirements,” Miller says.
Miller’s own commute entails cycling from his home in Islington, north London, to Paddington station – about five miles – then taking a train to Slough, then a shuttle bus to the office. The total journey time is about 1hr 20min each way and the return fare costs him £12.90. “Could I do that five days a week? Absolutely, but it’s much preferable to just do it three or four days a week,” Miller says.
One immediate gain has been an easing of traffic congestion in the streets around the company car park in Slough, which had become so intense it was causing problems with local residents and the council.
Another is that there has been no let-up in productivity. If anything, the opposite is the case. Of those surveyed by Global Action Plan, “the vast majority say they are either as productive or more productive working some of the time from home,” Restorick says.
His explanation for this is simple. When people come into the office, they concentrate on attending meetings and engaging with their colleagues. At home, on the other hand, they will concentrate on “writing that report. They are therefore planning their work more effectively,” Restorick says.
A survey cited in Harvard Business Review in August echoes this view, finding that managers make an extra effort to stay connected to those they don’t run into as a matter of course. Conversely, “proximity breeds complacency”.
Emissions savings
As for carbon emissions, these can be cut substantially by remote working. In the case of O2, the company hopes that as much as 30 tonnes a month across the UK has been saved in its three main offices including Slough. O2 has been actively cutting business travel as well as commuting, so part of the carbon cuts stem from there.
O2 has also seen no ill effect on productivity. “It probably enhances it”, Miller says. “I find it easy to work at home. The house is quiet, the technology allows me to get on the system, access all documents and the intranet.”
There are social benefits for home workers too. Miller points out: “At a practical level it works well – I have a family and it gives me the chance to see the kids before they go to school, and to see them earlier in the evening than I otherwise would. So it helps my work/life balance.”
Miller, who does emphasises how much he also enjoys the rapport and interaction of the workplace, says home working has quickly become an accepted part of life at O2.
The best way to start implementing a home working strategy is from an “employee attitude basis” rather than imposing it from on high, Global Action Plan’s Restorick said. In other words, employees need to feel it is something appealing rather than just environmentally worthy.
He cautions against businesses imposing flexible working to rationalise their HQ site costs. “Employees feel resentment: ‘you’ve made me move my workplace and now I’ve got to flexi-work.’” But if, on the other hand, “it’s sold as ‘here’s a chance for you to travel less and work more flexibly and productively’, then that would be a much stronger message.”
But businesses have to put considerable effort into bringing about this behaviour change. “We’ve made lots of effort to celebrate it and show it’s there for the long term. You have to listen to people’s concerns and constantly reinforce the message,” Restorick says.
For instance, some employees might feel cost is being shifted onto them in the form of higher electricity and heating bills, notwithstanding possible savings on transport.
For several years Global Action Plan has advised business, schools and communities on how to make their offices more energy efficient, with measures ranging from better insulation to turning down the heating: a one degree reduction in the thermostat can save up to 10% in fuel bills.
Now it is planning to offer domestic energy assessments for employees of organisations that are considering, or already embracing, home working.
However, for some employees, working from home will never be the answer, even part time. Clare Armitage, a conservation consultant in Edinburgh, says: “In theory it sounds good but the reality is that I have a mound of dirty washing and people ringing my doorbell at odd times. Tell me how I’m supposed to work through all that.”
Another aspect to consider is that for some managers it’s a considerable leap to trust everybody to be working when they are out of sight – and perhaps many miles away. But, again, many of these worries can be assuaged by clear definitions and discussions of roles and responsibilities. Miller from O2 says: “Everyone here is grown up about it.”