Work from Home and be more efficient

Allowing workers to work from home will not suit every company, but providing greater opportunities to staff to do so can have real business benefits. According to BT, while the London Olympic Games provides a timely business case to make the leap to greater flexibility, that decision has the potential to deliver returns that outlast the summer’s sporting triumphs. And BT’s research in the wake of the Vancouver Games found that a substantial 30 per cent of businesses would in retrospect have taken the chance to improve flexible working facilities for their staff.

This is an area in which BT leads by example, having encouraged flexible working for years. More than 70,000 of BT’s staff are equipped to work flexibly and around 13,000 work from home. The result has been harder work from employees. Jon Lane, business development and partnership director at BT, says “we find that home workers are 21 per cent more productive than office-based colleagues.” They also take less sick leave. He adds, “We have also made significant savings from reduced accommodation costs, and savings from recruitment and induction costs through better staff retention.”