Flexible working ‘could boost productivity’

Introducing a flexible working regime could boost workplace productivity by getting rid of the traditional commute, one sector commentator has claimed.

Rob Lovell, chief executive officer of ThinkGrid, a cloud IT services provider, explained that such technology allows employees to work almost anywhere, which could help HR teams to improve their absence management agendas.

"Flexible working gives people the opportunity to work from the places that suit them best, rather than travel for hours everyday," he added.

Mr Lovell explained that allowing people to work from home two days a week could add extra time to the day which may be lost through delays experienced during the commute, which might "impact on an employee’s productivity".

Get our essential weekday HR news and updates. Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Work Email Keep up with the latest in HR... This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_form This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_date Year Month Day This field is hidden when viewing the form Batch_Newsletter

Recent research by Citrix GoToMyPC revealed that British workers believe they could significantly reduce the time they spend travelling to and from work by adopting a smarter approach to commuting.

The most popular solutions include home working (34 per cent), varying start and finish times (22 per cent) and using technology to enable flexible and remote working (32 per cent).