Flexible

Technology

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Flexible Workingin the Information Age

Transforming the way your organisation works

In the modern world, organisationsface continuous pressure to do morefor less. All kinds of measures are proposed toraise productivity and reduce costs.But at the heart of the way we work,there are some fundamentalinflexibilities, and these usually remainunchallenged. Increased traffic congestion

and problems findingparking spaces lengthenthe working day andincrease stress levels

Time pressure throughnine-to-five workingincreases stress in theoffice and impairs effectiveworking.

Outside responsibilities andinterests should form anequal part of a balancedhome/work life. Flexibleworking helps peopleachieve this balance

Some of the symptoms include:

• Large offices, with many desks unoccupied for most of the day.

• Miles of cabinets and shelving for paper storage.

• Staff spending too much time travelling.

• A workforce struggling to balance the demands of home and work.

Underpinning these symptoms are somedeep-rooted assumptions about the waywe have to work. These assumptions areresponsible for creating time-wasting andexpensive processes, usually revolvingaround physical activities – either peoplegoing somewhere or things being moved.Maintaining the facilities and proceduresfor these physical activities puts significantconstraints on organisations and preventstheir employees from working effectively.

But, all this is set to change as we embrace"Information Age" flexible working.

02

ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe Benefits

Changing the way we workThe Issues – and facing up to them

The Opportunities

Flexible working is about using the newinformation and communicationstechnologies to break free from thetraditional shackles.

It is about harnessing the power of the newtechnologies to "dematerialise" processes,reduce the need for expensive property anddecrease the need for work-related travel.

It is about making organisations and staffmore flexible, introducing "anywhereanytime" working, and transferring moreresources to the front line.

And it is about creating better workingenvironments for staff – environments thatare more appropriate for the tasks theyperform.

The Benefits

Properly implemented, flexible working canbring far-reaching benefits across the board:

• Employers can reduce fixed costs, attract and retain staff, boost productivity and match resourcesto needs. They can also improve customer service and respond better to market forces.

• Employees can reduce work-relatedstress, decrease the time spentcommuting and lower their living costs. Furthermore, they can achieve moreautonomy and a better balance betweenthe demands of work and home.

• Society can gain from moreenvironmentally-friendly workingpractices, more work opportunities forsocially disadvantaged groups and thegeneration of new work opportunitiesin disadvantaged areas.

The Challenge

Simply investing in new technology orintroducing a new practice like "hot-desking" will not deliver the benefits.These only come when managersresponsible for facilities, informationservices and human resources worktogether to build a comprehensivestrategy that:

• Creates modern, flexible workingenvironments, both within and awayfrom the main office.

• Prepares and equips managers andstaff for flexible working.

• Streamlines processes and reduces paper-dependence.

• Gets the most from technology investments.

Advances in wirelesstechnology allow us toconnect and communicatealmost anywhere

03

ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe Benefits

And there have been issues of status, both in

terms of corporate status (large swanky

headquarters) and individual status (managers

getting the biggest offices). Today, however,

with the new information and communications

technologies, many of the old efficiencies no

longer apply, and a great deal of work can be

performed better away from the office.

We have been bringing people intooffices for so long now, we sometimesforget why we do it. So, why do wedo it? The primary reason has been tomaximise efficiency, combined withthe need for a central paper store,face-to-face communication, team-building and line-of-sightmanagement. In addition, the traditional economiesof scale that could be derived byconcentrating activities and resourceson one site have also been instrumental.

The arrival of newcommunicationstechnology has challengedthe traditional role of thecorporate office

Individual status is oftenlinked to office size, which can have a negative effect in corporate environments.Additionally, they are often an ineffective use of space.

04

ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe Benefits

Flexible officesWhy do we have offices?

UK investment in offices

Number of office workers 10 million

Capital investment £120 billion

Occupancy costs £30 billion per annum

Average occupancy per desk Less than 30% per working day

Cost per worker per year £1,500 to £15,000

Cost per hour of occupied desk £2.50 to £25 per hour

05

Shaking off the shackles

Yesterday’s buildings and yesterday’soffice environments are increasinglydifficult to use effectively. Not only arethey expensive to run, they also lock-ininefficient working practices. Staff workwhere the office happens to be, notwhere the work is best done. Time andproductivity are squandered throughunnecessary travelling. And few officeenvironments are designed as well asthey could be to encourage proactivesocial interaction during face-to-facemeetings and team-building activities.

Migrating from the traditional office

Although many management "gurus"would have us believe otherwise, theoffice is not dead. Instead, InformationAge technology is altering our concept ofwhat "the office" actually is. It is changingthe physical nature of offices and givingthem flexible boundaries.

With the right information andcommunications technology solution, theoffice can be anywhere. In particular, with the advent of desktop video-conferencing,the notion of the "virtual" or "follow-me"office will become even more powerful.

In the quest to support more productiveworking methods and to lower premisescosts, a number of options are commonlyused, often in combination with each other:

• Replacing large central facilities withnetworks of much smaller facilities,closer to customers and employees’homes.

• Setting up home offices, which arefully integrated with the company’scomputer and telephone systems.

• Enabling mobile workers, such assales people, travelling professionalsand field support staff, to workeffectively from any location, usingtheir homes or local offices as bases.

A move to more flexible, location-independent working means that anycentral office space needs to be useddifferently. A dedicated desk for eachperson becomes hard to justify. Instead,staff are more likely to need "touch-down"space, meeting rooms or library facilities,tailored to suit individual tasks.

Today’s youngergeneration is alreadyadapting to new wirelesstechnology. By the timethese two boys enter theworkplace, “going out towork” may have become athing of the past.

Enabling mobile workers towork effectively from anylocation is one way tosupport more productiveworking methods and lowerpremises costs

With the right informationand communicationstechnology solution, theoffice can be anywhere

ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe Benefits

Typical office hours aretoday extending beyondthe 9 to 5 working day

When we join an organisation, webuy into a whole set of familiarexpectations – the where, when, howand on what terms the job should bedone. In fact, over the past 150 yearsor so, certain norms have emergedregarding the nature and location ofmost kinds of jobs. Although it mayvary from sector to sector, work isgenerally performed on the employer’spremises, between 9.00am and5.30pm, on a full-time, permanent,employed basis – and so forth.

Security, stability and predictability may bethe advantages of such employmentpractices. But in a fast changing world,with new technologies, a competitiveglobal economy and higher expectationsfrom employees, the disadvantagesclearly outweigh the advantages.Traditional methods of work may be wellorganised for administrative conveniencebut they are not usually best suited tomeet the needs of customers, productionor employees’ lives.

06

ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe Benefits

Four main kinds of flexible working

Flexible contract: • Workers are employed and/or rewarded in non-standard ways.

Flexible time: • Work is performed at times that better suitthe employer and/or employee.

Flexible place: • Work is carried out wherever is mostappropriate and effective for the employerand/or employee.

Flexible tasks: • Multi-skilled workers are able to undertakea variety of tasks according to need.

Flexible People

So, what are the modern dayalternatives?

Flexible working options can be groupedinto four categories (see table on left).Often, flexible working will involve morethan one of these categories. The key isto devise a strategy that maximises thebenefits for both organisations andemployees.

Work/life balance

One of the UK government’s currentcampaigns is to promote "work/lifebalance”. The conflicting demands of workand home lead to tensions and stressaffecting both work performance andfamily life. How we organise work andwhere and when it takes place, are centralto these conflicts – and to the remedy!

Commuting to work simply to use acomputer and telephone is pointless andexpensive if the same tasks can beperformed at or nearer to home. Andtravelling in the rush-hour or just at the

time when the children have to go toschool adds to the strain. Clearly, digitaltechnologies can enable work to take placeat more family-friendly times and locations.

People and policies

To take full advantage of flexible working,staff must be trained to use the newtechnologies and to deal with managingor being managed at a distance. Flexibleworking schemes fail when technology isthrown at staff and they are just left to geton with it.

In addition, the right policies must be inplace to ensure good communication and toavoid the potential dangers of poor workingenvironments and feelings of isolation. Inmost cases, flexible working does notmean never seeing your colleagues! Itmeans being in the best place for carryingout particular tasks. And it should alsomean being more effective and systematicabout communication and team building.

How we organise work andwhere it takes place arecentral to alleviatingstresses caused by anunbalanced work/home life

The right policies must bein place to ensure goodcommunication is maintainedand that employees donot feel isolated whenworking flexibly

07

ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe Benefits

Outdated Expectations

Organisations rarely make themaximum use of the technologies inwhich they have invested. In fact, it issaid that most people only use about10% of the functionality of commonword-processing programmes. Thesame applies when it comes to makingthe most of corporate informationnetworks and telecommunications.

The reality is that, whilst new technologiesshould liberate staff and organisationsfrom paper-based processes andgeographical constraints, people oftenfeel constrained by IT procedures andhemmed-in by systems that waste timeand generate more, rather than lesspaper. The time has come to "choosefreedom" and make the most of thepossibilities presented by information andcommunications technology.

The UK Government iscurrently promoting“work/home balance”.New wireless technologyenables people to workflexibly, so contributing toa more balanced lifestyleWork Home

Networks, equipment and connection

Work can, in principle, take place anytime, anywhere. To make this happen,however, the right technologies andsystems have to be in place. There arethree main elements to this:

• Developing the corporate information and communications networks.

• Enabling ubiquitous access to these corporate networks.

• Creating the right technologyenvironments to enable effectiveremote working.

Quality equipment is a key consideration.In particular, desktops and notebook PCswith high-speed access – using fixed ormobile telephony – are essential.

Equally important is the ability for peopleto have access to the same corporatenetworks whether they are in or away fromthe office. They need to be able to accesstheir e-mail, workgroups, corporate intranetand other systems from any point.

08

Flexible

TechnologyFlexing the technology

Coming soon…

Although location-independent working isalready capable of realising manybenefits, "the best is yet to come", asthey say. Technological and regulatorydevelopments are opening up a wholenew set of opportunities:

• Fully wireless working in the office orat home, using the BluetoothTM

wireless communications standard,eliminating the usual clutter of cablesand paving the way for truly flexibleworking environments.

• Fully wireless working away from theoffice or home using third generationmobile networks.

• New computing and communicationsmodels based entirely on the Internet,together with high bandwidthunmetered access.

• Anywhere/anytime multimediacommunications over the Internet.

Adapting to flexible working

For IT managers, these are exciting timesbut they are also challenging times! Itrequires a commitment to work closelywith human resources and facilitiesmanagers to create the necessary flexibleworking environments and infrastructure.

It also requires a commitment to workalongside service managers to ensure thecorporate information and telecommunic-ations networks are aligned with servicedelivery priorities and the new ways ofworking.

One of the main challenges will be how todevelop "any time, anywhere" support for"any time, anywhere" working. To thisend, remote support and diagnostics willplay an increasing role, and we will alsosee a trend towards outsourcingtechnology services.

New technologies shouldliberate staff. The time hascome to ‘choose freedom’and reap the benefits ofinformation andcommunicationstechnology

With Bluetooth™ andwireless technology,colleagues can exchangeinformation andcommunicate withoutphysical connection tonetworks or other computers

09

Flexible

Technology

• Consuming less energy – throughreduced travel, paper production andoffice costs. Studies have shown thatthe "always on" heating, lighting, air-conditioning and equipment in the officeare far more energy-intensive perperson compared to the energyrequired for individuals working at home.

Social advantages and access to work

Generally, we accept the disadvantagesthat routine travel to work brings, in returnfor the economic benefits. But there aremany groups in society whose mobility isrestricted, typically through:

• Temporary illness or disablement.

• Permanent disability or long-term illness.

• Childcare responsibility.

• Caring for sick or disabled relatives.

• Not owning a vehicle, not being ableto drive or living in an area where thereis a "public transport vacuum".

The culture of commuting is a majorcontributor to social exclusion in theseinstances. Modern digital technologyoffers a flexibility of location that can helpovercome mobility restrictions. It allowsaccess to work even where physicalaccess to the workplace is a problem.

Flexible working can yield importantenvironmental and social benefitsalongside the business benefits. This isrelevant for all organisations butparticularly for those in the publicsector. In many cases, as well as beingthe largest employers in an area, publicsector organisations have public policyresponsibilities – and a duty to practisewhat they preach!

Environmental responsibility

Flexible working can achieve widerenvironmental benefits in three main areas:

• Reducing travel – both in terms of thenumber of commute trips and theamount of business travel. Electroniccommunication replaces physicalmovement – not all the time butenough to make a difference. Anaverage 1.5 days per week workingfrom home reduces commute trips by30%. Business travel reductions inreported schemes are in the order of8% to 15%.

• Driving out paper – eliminating paperprocesses must be a key driver behindintroducing new ways of working. Weall know that computers can generatepaper as much as reduce it but paperelimination has to remain an aspiration.

New ways of working alsocontribute to a betterenvironment, throughconsuming less energy,reducing travel and paperproduction

Modern digital technologyoffers a flexibility oflocation that overcomesmobility restrictions

10

ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe BenefitsResponsible Working

spreading the benefits

Turning ideas into action

Changing only one aspect of how peoplework is unlikely to lead to significantbenefits. For example, expecting peopleto work from home without any changeto systems and business processes willinevitably lead to problems. Similarly,providing remote access technologieswithout adequate training and changesto policies will lead to inefficiency anddissatisfaction.

A "holistic" approach is the only way tomaximise the benefits. A high level cross-departmental team must be set up todrive the change project forward.Facilities, information services and humanresources managers all need to worktogether.

High levels of awareness raising andconsultation amongst staff need to takeplace to ensure buy-in from all quarters.Change that is forced upon people usuallycreates mistrust and non-co-operation.

Focus on the business benefits

A coherent strategy must cover all the keyareas and outline the targets andtimescales.

It is important to deal with real numbersand set realistic financial goals for thedeliverables, building on best practiceschemes, where possible. Even "soft"goals such as improving staff motivationcan usually be translated into bottom-lineimprovements, for example by examiningthe recruitment, training and lostproductivity costs of high staff turnover.

Rolling out the flexible organisation

With lessons learned from quick wins andpilots, the roll-out of the flexibleorganisation can begin. Clearly, the paceof technological progress means thatchange is likely to be a continuousprocess but by developing a culture offlexibility and adaptability, organisations willbe able to stay ahead in the market, adaptto regulatory changes and be the employerof choice for people seeking a progressiveworking environment.

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ChangingFlexibleExpectationsThe Benefits

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Improvements

Effective and efficient

service delivery.

Low operating and

administrative costs.

High business efficiency and

team/personal productivity.

High staff motivation

and retention.

Equal opportunities, environmental

and social sustainability.

Integratedchange programme

Areas of activity

Facilities:

Office and "away from

the office" facilities.

Technology:

Infrastructure and

applications, business

processes and communications.

The Human Factor:

Organisation, management

methods, working practices,

skills and HR policies.

Toshiba Information Systems (UK) LtdToshiba CourtWeybridge Business ParkAddlestone RoadWeybridgeSurreyKT15 2UL

Telephone 01932 828828http://computers.toshiba.co.uk

Flexibility is the online journal of flexible working,providing news, features, reviews and otherresources on the world of flexible work.

Flexibility is published by HOP Associates, 55 West Street, Comberton, Cambridge CB3 7DSTelephone: 01223 264485 Fax: 020 7570 0820E-mail: flexibility@hop.co.uk

www.flexibility.co.uk