What is flexible working?

Flexible working and teleworking means you need to think again about the way you and your staff work to make the most of ICT to achieve work life balance and increasing productivity.

At a very simple level, examples could include:

• make more use of teleconferencing and telecommuting rather than spending time and money travelling to meetings. Avoid congestion and  reduce travel whilst improving employee productivity
• let your staff carry out some of their work from home rather than travel into the office every day - improving personal productivity and work life balance
• have a more flexible approach to when work is done. Perhaps it would suit some of your staff and the business better if some of the work were carried out in the early morning, in the evening or at weekends, improving personal productivity. This can be achieved, for example, by compressed hours, annualised hours, monthly hours or job sharing.

Some businesses will want to invest in technology to gain further advantages of flexible working. Examples include:

• instal a Virtual Private Network to enable remote working . Then  your staff can all work from home just as efficiently as they could in the office, enjoying remote access
• supply staff with wireless enabled laptops so they can carry out mobile working, using broadband hotspots as they travel around and so improving personal  productivity
• have staff working from a number of different locations around the UK – or even around the globe – connected together by broadband
• use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony to save on the costs of calls between remote working employees and the office. Enjoy the benefits of receiving your calls on one number – no matter where you are!
• Or use other technology like a terminal server or remote desktop

Some businesses even decide they no longer need an office at all – with huge cost savings!