Case study of flexible working at BT
How many BT workers are identified as home workers?
BT says that 70,000 of their employees are currently taking part in BT’s Work style Project. Out of these 70,000, 11,600 are identified as home workers.
What other companies are identified in the projects?
The other companies that are indentified in the project are BT’s environment unit. SUSTEL is a European Union project involved in sustainable teleworking. One part of this projects research is to do a comparative survey of five of its partner country.
What different types of teleworking are identified?
The different types of teleworking that are identified are remote working and mobile working.
Remote working means that the employee needs the technological ability in their homes to be able to carry out their jobs.
Mobile working means that the employee will need various facilities associated with their jobs that can be used on the move.
What differences does the report note in working hours when teleworking?
BT say that their teleworking employees take 63 % less sick leave than their office based colleagues.
Also the study says that the employees spend much less time commuting to work meaning that more time is free to carry out their jobs.
What percentage of workers travel significantly less than commuting office staff?
The percentage of workers that travel much less than their commuting counter parts is 49%. This saves 1,800 years worth of commuting time according to BT’s findings, this is also very good for the environment.
What are the key benefits for BT?
Accommodation Costs – BT saves approximately €104 million in accommodation cost due to home workers.
Environmental benefits – BT’s saves its employees 1,800 years of commuting time. This is not only good for the productivity of BT’s workers but it is also good for the environment.
Productivity – With the ability to work at home the staff are able to carry out personal task during their working hours. This means that staff is more motivated to work longer hours and therefore get more work done.
What are the key benefits identified by BT employees?
The key benefits identified by BT employees are:
Travel – The staff do not have to spend long train or car journeys to get to work. This is good for employee morale and for the environment.
Staying at home – The employee can stay at home and spend more time with family. Again improving employee morale.
What negative impacts of teleworking are noted in the report?
The negative impacts of teleworking that are noted in the report are that teleworking employees feel that working at home means that they are being isolated from the social and professional interactions of being in a working environment.
Another negative impact of teleworking is that some employees find it hard to adapt to working at home. It involves merging your working and your social life, and this proves hard for some people.
What are the key economic benefits?
By staying at home the employee is not subjected to the hustle and bustle of working in an office, meaning that the working has a quieter and more focused environment to work in. This means that the worker can get more work done meaning that BT get the most work for their money.
By working from home BT’s staff are saved the cost, time and stress of commuting to and from work. This is good for the employee as petrol and train fares can be very costly when used over a long period of time.
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Friday, 10 October 2008
Activity 1 Tool Man
John’s job as a sales representative could benefit greatly from the introduction of ICT technology.
John could use a GPS in his car so that he no longer required carrying around a large A-Z with him. It would also mean that he could find new clients much easier than with an A-Z and wouldn’t need to stop to check his route.
John could benefit greatly from a PDA or a laptop. This would mean that he would not have to carry his bulky calculator, sales catalogue or order forms. These could all be taken care of with software on a laptop such as Microsoft Office Excel for his order forms and Microsoft Office Access for his Sales Catalogue.
John could use a mobile phone so that he doesn’t have to carry round an assortment of coins for payphones.
John could also use the internet to email all his sales figures and orders to another member of staff so that he doesn’t have to spend extra time at the end of each day doing administration work.
The disadvantages for John with this technology would be learning how to use this technology and also solving any problems or errors that might occur. However once these may have been overcome Johns would be significantly more efficient.
Another disadvantage of all of the technology would be the cost of purchase. Unless John’s company paid for all the equipment for him then it would be a large expense that he may not find cost effective.
John could use a GPS in his car so that he no longer required carrying around a large A-Z with him. It would also mean that he could find new clients much easier than with an A-Z and wouldn’t need to stop to check his route.
John could benefit greatly from a PDA or a laptop. This would mean that he would not have to carry his bulky calculator, sales catalogue or order forms. These could all be taken care of with software on a laptop such as Microsoft Office Excel for his order forms and Microsoft Office Access for his Sales Catalogue.
John could use a mobile phone so that he doesn’t have to carry round an assortment of coins for payphones.
John could also use the internet to email all his sales figures and orders to another member of staff so that he doesn’t have to spend extra time at the end of each day doing administration work.
The disadvantages for John with this technology would be learning how to use this technology and also solving any problems or errors that might occur. However once these may have been overcome Johns would be significantly more efficient.
Another disadvantage of all of the technology would be the cost of purchase. Unless John’s company paid for all the equipment for him then it would be a large expense that he may not find cost effective.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Downloading goods and services
For this lesson we had to summerise the services and goods we had downloaded, the good & bad points of these and the reason to use it.
Products/ Services I have downloaded
iTunes Store
Music and videos from the iTunes store. I have downloaded music albums and a few films from the iTunes store. The reason to download from the iTunes store is that the service allows you to download the products straight to your iPod and also it allows you to browse the whole available library much quicker than you would be able to in a shop. Also the films are in the correct format to play on iPod.
Full PC Games
I have on occasion downloaded full PC games over the internet, one from the Steam service. (Half Life 2)
The reason to download the game this way is that it is more convenient than going to a store and also it means that you have no disk to get damaged or lost.
The service offered a quick download time and good customer service. Also the game was cheaper offered as a download as a pose to buying physical copy.
Anti – Virus Software
The anti virus software updates are among the most frequent of the downloaded goods. The need for frequent updates means that you could be downloading updates many times a day. This service is a fantastic addition to the industry as to update by a disk would mean a new disk every day and this would be time consuming and expensive. As it is now you may not even know you software is updating as it does it automatically.
The problems with these services could be slow download speeds, insecure payment methods or viruses.
Products/ Services I have downloaded
iTunes Store
Music and videos from the iTunes store. I have downloaded music albums and a few films from the iTunes store. The reason to download from the iTunes store is that the service allows you to download the products straight to your iPod and also it allows you to browse the whole available library much quicker than you would be able to in a shop. Also the films are in the correct format to play on iPod.
Full PC Games
I have on occasion downloaded full PC games over the internet, one from the Steam service. (Half Life 2)
The reason to download the game this way is that it is more convenient than going to a store and also it means that you have no disk to get damaged or lost.
The service offered a quick download time and good customer service. Also the game was cheaper offered as a download as a pose to buying physical copy.
Anti – Virus Software
The anti virus software updates are among the most frequent of the downloaded goods. The need for frequent updates means that you could be downloading updates many times a day. This service is a fantastic addition to the industry as to update by a disk would mean a new disk every day and this would be time consuming and expensive. As it is now you may not even know you software is updating as it does it automatically.
The problems with these services could be slow download speeds, insecure payment methods or viruses.
Friday, 26 September 2008
Evaluation of a Free Weather Report
For this task we had to evaluate the accuracy and usability of a free weather forecasting service.
Evaluation of the free weather forecast
Over the past week I have compared the information from a free weather forecast for 7 days from the BBC website to what the weather was actually like.
On the whole the free weather report from the BBC was accurate enough to be able to plan your activities for the week by it.
Generally if the forecast said that it would be Sunny in the morning and wet in the afternoon then that would be what happened. There were variations to the forecast given, but generally it was very accurate.
The forecast gives the user the general weather report, e.g. Sunny, Rain etc but it also gives more detailed information such as minimum and maximum temperatures, wind speed, visibility, humidity and pollution reports.
The site offers a clear view of the forecast in the form of a picture representing the weather and also an easy to understand table of the other information given.
Overall the BBC weather forecasting service offers a accurate easy to use service.
Providing that the BBC site is a free service I don’t feel that I would have gotten better information from a pay site.
Over the past week I have compared the information from a free weather forecast for 7 days from the BBC website to what the weather was actually like.
On the whole the free weather report from the BBC was accurate enough to be able to plan your activities for the week by it.
Generally if the forecast said that it would be Sunny in the morning and wet in the afternoon then that would be what happened. There were variations to the forecast given, but generally it was very accurate.
The forecast gives the user the general weather report, e.g. Sunny, Rain etc but it also gives more detailed information such as minimum and maximum temperatures, wind speed, visibility, humidity and pollution reports.
The site offers a clear view of the forecast in the form of a picture representing the weather and also an easy to understand table of the other information given.
Overall the BBC weather forecasting service offers a accurate easy to use service.
Providing that the BBC site is a free service I don’t feel that I would have gotten better information from a pay site.
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Review of www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk
For this task I had to write a short review of the Making the modern world site.
Here is the review that I wrote:
[2] From the “About Us” section of www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk
Here is the review that I wrote:
Review of Makingthemodernworld.org.uk
According to the “About Us” section of the Making the modern world site, it is a “groundbreaking initiative in web learning, based on the Science Museum’s landmark gallery Making the Modern World.”[1]
They go on to say what they aim to do by providing the site:
“National Museum of Science and Industry aims to engage people in a dialogue to create meanings from the past, present and future of human ingenuity, including science, technology, medicine, transport and media.
It aims to inspire, educate and involve visitors. NMSI's active programme to develop a strong and comprehensive online presence supports these objectives and serves to broaden access to the museum's many wonderful objects.”[2]
The website is presented in a aesthetically pleasing way, it is colourful, easy to navigate with some nice transition effects and good sized photographs and other images.
The site also boasts good interactivity for the user in the form of an interactive timeline on the home page with links to other pages within the site.
This is good for the user because while it is practically good for easy navigation of the site but it is also interesting and involving to use.
The site also offers links to outside sources that are interesting, informative and feature large amounts of interesting pictures and articles related to the subject.
The site is primarily a learning resource. The site is designed to engage the user so that the subject they are studying will appeal to them and this means that the user is more likely to stay interested in the subject they are studying and therefore learn more.
[1] From the “about us” section of www.makingthemodernworld.org.ukAccording to the “About Us” section of the Making the modern world site, it is a “groundbreaking initiative in web learning, based on the Science Museum’s landmark gallery Making the Modern World.”[1]
They go on to say what they aim to do by providing the site:
“National Museum of Science and Industry aims to engage people in a dialogue to create meanings from the past, present and future of human ingenuity, including science, technology, medicine, transport and media.
It aims to inspire, educate and involve visitors. NMSI's active programme to develop a strong and comprehensive online presence supports these objectives and serves to broaden access to the museum's many wonderful objects.”[2]
The website is presented in a aesthetically pleasing way, it is colourful, easy to navigate with some nice transition effects and good sized photographs and other images.
The site also boasts good interactivity for the user in the form of an interactive timeline on the home page with links to other pages within the site.
This is good for the user because while it is practically good for easy navigation of the site but it is also interesting and involving to use.
The site also offers links to outside sources that are interesting, informative and feature large amounts of interesting pictures and articles related to the subject.
The site is primarily a learning resource. The site is designed to engage the user so that the subject they are studying will appeal to them and this means that the user is more likely to stay interested in the subject they are studying and therefore learn more.
[2] From the “About Us” section of www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Online Banking Presentation
So in this lesson I've researched and put together a short Powerpoint presentation about online banking.
Slide 1
Here is my presentation:
Slide 1
Slide 2
Slide 3
Slide 4
Slide 5
Slide 6
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