Flexible working: Words from the wise

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Flexible and remote working can deliver massive benefits to both individuals and businesses alike.

To mark National Work From Home Day, here are some words from the wise who are already embracing – and enjoying the benefits of – smarter working practices.

"To really get the sort of people we want to work here and then get the best out of them you must run a very individualised culture in terms of understanding people and their hopes, aspirations and dreams and also how they best work.”

Microsoft

"I think initially certainly for an organisation, it is almost like an act of faith, to actually embark on a flexible working programme. But our experience has been that it more than pays off, very rapidly.”

BT

Flexible working is a business led rather than an HR led project and that means having to "readdress all the health and safety, communication, company culture issues as part of that implementation.”

Thames Water

“When people come into the building they say it’s got a real buzz. Flexible working creates energy and transparency. The new ways of working that we have put in place with the help of BT really do change the organisation’s culture dramatically, in a way that I don’t think you can bring about through any other method.”

Bridget Taylor, director of strategy, Suffolk County Council’s Customer Service Direct

"e-working is an important area of Government policy that we are striving to achieve - staff are fully contactable through Workstyle services and they can respond more quickly to events and access the information they need to make effective decisions. I have been working flexibly for just four months and it has already reduced my costs, increased my productivity and allowed me to scope a much improved work-life balance.”

Lt Cdr Nick Chamberlain, DFTS Through-life manager, Internet Gateway Service, MoD

“If we needed to be based in an office and stuck behind a desk, I would not have been able to achieve the growth we have enjoyed since the company started… It is unfortunate that more businesses do not understand or adopt the benefits of remote working more fully as in many cases I strongly believe that they would be far more able to deliver greater output and efficiency. Again I believe in many cases that where office working is concerned, typical days and thought processes are interrupted far too often and where jobs have deadlines or need creative thinking, the benefit of remote working to deliver is totally undervalued in the main.”

Adrian Bereziuk, managing director and senior consultant, Smart Partnerships

Case study sound bites are courtesy of Work Wise UK.

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