Difficult Times Call for Bold Thinking

Smarter Working the way to survive!

We have all seen the gloomy forecasts. We have read that the UK is predicted to suffer worst amongst G7 countries, seen the implosion of the construction industry and heard predictions that unemployment will reach as high as 3 million by the end of 2009. But, is the unemployment forecast being partly fuelled by organisations that are perhaps wrongly viewing downsizing their work-force as a first rather than last resort?

It is easy in such turbulent times to lose sight of the old but true maxim that ‘people are crucial to business success’ It is after all, people that can find ways to help a business survive the recession and plan ways to optimise market-share when the economic recovery eventually arrives.

The MATiSSE Smarter Working initiative (MATiSSE = Mobile And Teleworking Initiative for a Smarter South East) applauds the attention drawn by august bodies like the CBI and CIPD who in year-end (2008) reports [1] have asked employers to ‘hold their nerve’ and to remember that ‘people management and staff skills are major factors in achieving a competitive position’.

The CIPD for instance, has calculated that the true average cost of redundancy for each employee is £16,375. They base the figure on a formula that takes into consideration amongst other factors the cost of redundancy payments, the original employee induction and training costs and the percentage reduction in output caused by lowered employee morale and commitment.

So what then are the smarter working ways to survive and beat the recession and make the most of future economic recovery?

Find out what you can save overall - Find out how much introducing or expanding Smarter Working practices can save your business. A quick and easy way to get an indication of the potential annual savings is the on-line MATiSSE Smarter Working cost savings CALculator Visit http://www.savings.computer-assets.co.uk/matisse/ , answer three simple questions and then request your personalised cost-savings report.

Halve your office costs - Not only is real-estate potentially the biggest source (50%) of CO2 emissions, it is also likely that your office accommodation is less than 50% utilised. With the cost of each office-workspace in the South East computed to be between £5 and £6,000 [2] you can save money by reducing your office footprint, share under-utilised space with equally hard-up neighbour businesses or expand home, work-centre or remote based working. (Come to think of it, you could implement all four!)

Share Jobs and Skills – It could be a project manager, your HR specialist, Marketing/PR or IT staff, but offering staff to other local firms – as recently suggested by Work Wise UK [3] - might avoid the cost and disruption of redundancy and might also lead to more collaborative forms of working, especially important for SMEs, in the longer term.

Travel Smarter – Reducing business and employee costs by offering such as occasional home based working is a smart way for an employer to put money in the pocket of an employee and at the same time reduce office costs and carbon footprint. For some employers, either singly or with business park or industrial estate neighbours, it might be worth investigating multi-business travel plans. These can result in tax and NI saving (the latter for employer and employee) so called ‘salary sacrifice’ travel schemes and use of low-cost audio and web-conferencing reducing the lost opportunity, time and travel costs associated with off-site meetings.

Improve Efficiency and Performance – Smarter Working also means improving company and individual performance and applying more sustainable working practices. Many organisations can achieve the savings needed to survive the recession by measuring and improving current performance (output), through innovative processes, effective use of ICT and by goaling and rewarding staff on a performance (output) basis.

Want to Learn More?

Visit the MATiSSE website http://www.ehampshire.org/matisse The eHampshire Partnership MATiSSE website is a rich resource for advice and guidance related to the successful introduction of recession-beating smarter working and smarter commuting practices.

MATiSSE Workshop Participation – the eHampshire Partnership together with MATiSSE Knowledge Exchange Partners <see website> run regular, mostly FREE, introductory and topic specific smarter working workshops and webcasts. Meet up with your peers and learn how to successfully introduce smarter working in your organisation. The website http://www.ehampshire.org/events lists the latest events schedule.