London – The City of Travel Chaos
Everyday we hear about Travel Chaos in London. Charing Cross is a particular bug bear of mine. According to Office of Road and Rail figures, Charing Cross station saw an estimated 81,000 passengers pass through it every day in 2016/17. That’s a huge amount of footfall.
Frazzled and Unproductive
It takes a barrel load of determination to get to work in a big city like London. Workers often arrive frazzled and not in a particularly productive frame of mind. Maybe that’s why National productivity levels have fallen behind our European counterparts.
Meanwhile, the Chambers of Commerce, Quarterly Economic Survey highlights that Employers are consistently failing to access the right talent at the right time. Could this be due to the fact that we’ve organised our workforces around major cities for far too long? It’s so difficult to get in and out of them, when we are all travelling at the same times.
When frazzled workers finally get into work – what do they do? They email the person next to them.
It’s ironic then that todays mobile and cloud technology enables authorised users to work from anywhere – the office, a hub, remotely or in the field. This means businesses can scale up easily for seasonal peaks, for business continuity or planned growth – and the solution does not have to be City based.
In the Sticks
Elsewhere in the country, businesses who are based “in the sticks” have already had to change their mindset and the way that they approach employing people in order to attract and retain employees. They have introduced a new concept called The Smart Workforce.
As far south as the Scilly Isles and as far north as the Orkney Islands, organisations are bagging the best talent by offer Smart, remote, hub and field roles. The locals are setting up a work hub on Orkney so that more locals can tap into the jobs offered by forward thinking organisations.
What do Organisations gain from a Smart Workforce
- A wider talent pool
- Reduced attrition costs
- Reduced overhead costs
- A long term solution to the gender pay gap
- Better corporate social responsibility
- Better satisfied employees which reflects beautifully on customer service
- Case study after case study reveals productivity increases by no less than 13% when a Smart Workforce Model is effectively deployed. That’s almost an extra day a week!
What do Employees gain from Smart Working
- A better quality of life
- Reduction in travel cost
- More time with the family
- Those in remote locations can join the workforce
- People with Disabilities can access jobs
- Parents have more time with their family which is good for society too
Work happens in Brains – not offices.
Why not join us at our next workshop in Watford on 13th May and Birmingham on 17th May . You will learn how to set up and manage a Smart Workforce for your business. We will also share how you can avoid the pitfalls.
Sign up for our newsletter HERE or Contact us at ideas@smartworkingrevolution.com for a chat about your plans to attract smart people.
