National Work from Home Day on 15th May
Are you joining the mass absense from work?
In what could be the largest mass absence from work for a generation, an estimated five million people will not be going to work on Thursday, 15th May. None of them will be calling sickies, skiving or making excuses. In fact, their bosses may even be joining them and taking work home for the day, on National Work from Home Day. National Work from Home Day is aimed at highlighting smarter working practices by encouraging companies to give employees a day at home.
Working at home that is, in order to trial better working practises such as flexible working, remote working, mobile working and working from home; all promoting a work-life balance. Remote Employment is now inviting companies across the UK to support National Work from Home, by giving their employees the opportunity to work flexible hours or work from home. Founder and Managing Director, Ken Sheridan believes a flexible employment solution benefits business, employees, and the country as a whole.
Find out more: Take our quick survey!
Email paula@remoteemployment to let us know what you are doing for National Work from Home Day and if you want your company highlighted here.
A series of events are currently being devised to take place throughout the United Kingdom which will bring the national agenda to a local level. If you would like to discuss how your organisation could partner with the IT Forum Foundation in holding an event please find more information on Work Wise UK.
If you would like to consider committing to smarter working, please find out about The Work Wise UK Concordat and complete their online form.
Read more about the 'Workplace Revolution'
The traditional workplace is heading for a workplace revolution. Century-old established, outdated working cultures and traditions need to break down. They are wasteful in terms of resources and time, damaging in terms of the environment and global warming, unhealthy in terms of worker wellbeing, and frustrating in terms of traffic congestion and public transport overcrowding.
Adopting a modern day approach to our working lives will increase business productivity and competitiveness, reduce transport wasted travel congestion and pollution, improve health by reducing stress, assist disadvantaged groups and harmonise our work and family commitments.
Virtual Jobs
Research shows that the structure of the labour market is going to be reshaped dramatically over the four years, with remote working expected to almost double. There are already around 3.1 million people working from home in the UK and this is expected to double by 2012! The recent emergence of 'virtual jobs' and 'virtual communities' is changing the way companies attract and retain skilled employees.
Virtual Offices
Ken Sheridan, Managing Director, advocates that the notion of nine to five might gradually disappear, with staff working ad-hoc hours around their home commitments. Offices will probably disappear and instead mini business centres could spring up near satellite offices. Increasingly people will work from home as organisations cut down their overheads on office space and use remote locations as the workplace evolves.
Virtual Communities
Sheridan says: "The recent emergence of 'virtual jobs' and 'virtual communities' is changing the way companies attract and retain skilled employees. Smarter organisations reduce employment costs by adopting 'remote working' as a regular employment solution. With this new approach, many employers are now considering remote working and working from home as viable options in their recruitment drive."
South East leads the way
The South East has the highest proportion of commuters with the average person spending the equivalent of an additional working day each week commuting. It also boasts the biggest proportion of home workers: over 600,000 people work from home (excluding London), which is nearly 15 per cent of the working population. This has increased by nearly a quarter in the last decade.
Remote Employment hopes thousands of companies and organisations will join the workplace revolution by implementing flexible working practices to the benefit of their business, their employees, and the country as a whole. For more information, browse www.workwiseuk.org.
