Encouraging car sharing saves employers money on mileage claims and expenses such as parking space maintenance. Bicycle hire schemes and converting a company car fleet to more fuel efficient, greener vehicles benefits the environment, reducing carbon footprint. Flexible and home working also saves companies considerable costs: at BT it has reduced absenteeism to 3.1% (the national average is 8.5%). And BT has calculated that a reduction in commuting by homeworkers has resulted in over 7.5 million kg of CO2 emissions being avoided from those journeys. Other companies that have successfully implemented smart travel plans include BSkyB and E-ON.
Latest research3 by NBTN, of employee's who travel to work in Great Britain, reveals that over half of those surveyed (63%) would take up a work travel plan if their company offered one. A work travel plan uses more sustainable modes of transport like car sharing, cycle schemes and flexible or home working, if employers facilitated such schemes. More than 1 in 4 (28%) of those surveyed stated that flexible working would also increase their loyalty to an employer and over a fifth (24%) felt it would significantly improve their productivity. The potential benefits of travel plans for businesses, as demonstrated by companies like BT, are clear: increased employee reliability, productivity and improved corporate credentials.
Key factors which currently determine employees chosen method of transport are convenience (64%) and cost (29%). Just over a third surveyed currently use a car to drive themselves to work, however many employee's who travel to work would consider alternative means of travel with almost 1 in 5 (18%) surveyed willing to take part in a car share scheme.
Heather McInroy, Programme Director for NBTN says;
"I am urging all businesses to embrace a modern approach to work travel practices. Business resilience, recruitment, retention and business agility to meet customer demands is at the heart of this issue. It is great to see that such a high percentage of employees would consider buying into a work travel scheme and I hope that employers now act on this. The message is clear flexible workstyles and travel plans are good for the environment, good for business and good for employee well-being."
Jon Marsh, Head of Agility at BT Global Sevices says,
"Through working in partnership with NBTN we are communicating the effectiveness of work place travel plans and smarter working policies to other organisations so they can share in the practices that have been so beneficial to BT."
"At BT we have implemented flexible and home working at scale across the organisation, allowing people to work in the way that best suits them, their job, their personal circumstances and our customers. As a result we've been able not only to make large financial savings and productivity improvements but also create a more sustainable organisation through reducing travel and CO2 emissions."
The National Business Travel Network (NBTN) is urging businesses to champion smart work travel plans, including flexible working, to reduce CO2 emissions and bolster employee well-being and productivity. For further information and advice about work travel plans, please visit www.nbtn.org.uk
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