Flexible working at BT

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.