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Keeping it flexible

1st November 2007
Page 20
Page 20, 1st November 2007 — Keeping it flexible
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

In the second part of our coverage of the Women in Transport conference, Roanna Avison looKs at the issues of flexible working and mentoring.

WOMEN IN RANSPORT 2007 PART TWO

Dffering flexible working hours and the ability to work from home is not going to work in all aspects of road transport. [ter all, drivers may struggle to change their iurs because of delivery schedules and they n hardly work from home.

But for employees in clerical and admini strae roles, working flexibly is a possibility. Speaking at the Skills for Logistics (SfL) and eight Transport Association Women in ansport 2007 conference, Ann Beynon. BT -ector of Wales, said flexibility can actually Ike a business run more efficiently.

And she should know: 75% of staff at BT work xiblyincluding as many men as women. Beynon admits it has meant a massive culture ift because it only works when people are waged properly: "it means we have to manage d measure output rather than the number of urs staff are working."

!nefits of flexibility

; a result of flexible working practices BT has ved £70m in office costs; £10m in fuel and insport costs; and £.5m as a result of more staff :urning from maternity or parental leave )% now do so).

However only 10% of BT staff work from me full-time.Beynon said:"To accommodate xible practices we offer hot-desking, note access to BT systems, and reduced or mpressed working weeks, and this means have to provide output-based performance evaluation. The only danger we find is the people work too much."

While the need to work flexibly is not restricted to women, Beynon accepts women need more flexibility to remain in the workforce.

BT figures show 64% of women want to have flexible working hours. Other priorities include being associated with people they respect (82%); being themselves at work (79%); and working as a team (61%). Only 15% said a powerful post was important.

BT is not the only company offering staff the flexibility to work different hours or to work from home or on the road.NigelSullivan,group human resources director at Wincanton, said: If someone has a field role they are able to work from home,but we limit that to three days a week so they feel they are part of the business and part of the team."

Tony Mellor, commercial director at Pall-Ex, told the conference his company has found that employees are now working when they used to be travelling to work.

Relaxed and sensible

Nikki King, UK MD at Isuzu Trucks, said: "Typically employers make rules and regulations because one person has abused the system. But if they relax and are sensible, flexible working becomes very do-able."

King explained that Isuzu has a one-to-one system under which every member of staff has a meeting with their manager every six to eight weeks. This, she added, is "real time to talk about real issues — and issues like the need to work flexibly are often raised in that arena". n


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