eWORK 2000 - European Telework Week

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New Ways to Work 2000European TeleworkMOTORS OR MODEMS ? How technology can cut traffic growth.Virtual journeys on the superhighway could reduce growth in traffic congestion on the real highway by up to45%, suggests a new report launched by the RAC Foundation tin June 2000.The study by National Economic Research Associates, "Motors and Modems Revisited", updates previouswork for the RAC Foundation on the role of technology in reducing travel demands. The report studiesexperiences in other countries, previous survey work and the current views of telecommunications experts. Thereport forecasts thatIn 5 yearsIn 10 yearsTeleworking - cuts commuter traffic up to 10 % 15 %Video and audio conferencing – cuts business travel up to 3 % 5 %Use of Information technology – cuts lorry journeys up to 16 % 18 %Teleshopping – reduces car journeys by up to 5 % 10 %Edmund King, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation, said:"In the past estimates concerning the potential of teleworking have been exaggerated and estimates in this arearemain uncertain due to the question of substituted journeys. However, If each employee could work fromhome just one day per week we would see a twenty per cent cut in traffic, equivalent to removing the schoolrun. Today's technology is better and cheaper so more employees have the chance to work some of the timefrom home. It remains to be seen whether motorists working from home would substitute their commutingjourneys with other social or leisure trips. Even if this did happen there would still be benefits as thesubstitution journeys would tend to be made outside of the peak periods. The e-highway has a vital role toplay in curbing congestion chaos on the real highway."The report also reveals• TRL research suggests that quality of life and reduced commuting time for workers, and employeeflexibility and office space for employees, are the main reasons for teleworking.• Teleworkers are more likely to have higher incomes and live further from their place of work.• Motorway service areas could become work stations to avoid city centre travel.• A survey of 43 BT home workers estimates that the average annual miles saved in travel from the home tooffice mostly by car is 3149.• BT also estimate that it has saved 150 million business miles in a year by conferencing.• The benefits to the economy in reduced congestion costs could be up to £1.3 billion by 2005 and up to£1.9 billion by 2010. As a result of the report, the RAC Foundation is calling for:• Publicity measures to publicise the advantages of teleworking and other transport substitution action toboth employers and employees. Leading by example, the Government could develop and encourage homeworking by its own employees.• More research into the present extent of telecommuting and potential futurebenefits.• Development of smart card ticketing so that transport suppliers can offer more flexible tickets, forexample, three day season tickets, to encourage teleworking.•"Motors and Modems Revisited: the role of technology in reducing traveldemands and congestion" was produced by John Dodgson, Jonathan Pacey andMichael Begg at NERA. John Dodgson can be contacted on 020 7659 8556The report will be available on the NERA website at: http://www.nera.comRecent developments- 108 -
New Ways to Work 2000European TeleworkAnother indirect boost to teleworking came from the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the form of tax incentivesto employers to buy computers for their employees and allow the cost to be depreciated over a single year.ACAS, the Government's Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service published in 2000 a study of its ownteleworking scheme (An Evaluation of Homeworking in ACAS, by Ursula Huws, Siobhan O'Regan andSheila Honey) as a case study of sustainable teleworking for organisations involving knowledge professionals.The British Government, along with the European Commission and British Telecom, will be sponsoringTelework 2000, the annual European Telework Conference this year organised by the TCA (the Telework andTelecottage Association).The number of teleworking schemes in the UK continues to grow, and includes several examples in localgovernment, some introduced with the aim of achieving 'best value', and several in the financial services sector,including a pilot teleworking scheme introduced by the Alliance and Leicester, triggered by the difficulty ofrecruiting skilled staff in city centre locations. Such schemes are monitored and analysed regularly in thepages of the Teleworker and Flexible Working which continue to be the two most informative and accessiblepublications in this field in the UK. The TCA (which publishes the Teleworker) has revised and updated itsever-popular Teleworking Handbook which will become available in Autumn, 2000The past year has also seen a growing interest in call centre employment, now generally acknowledged to bethe most rapidly-growing form of employment in the UK, but associated with a number of problems such asstress, high turnover and recruitment difficulties. A study of virtual call centres by IES and the TCA,sponsored by Mitel and the Gulbenkian Foundation (Virtually There, by Ursula Huws and Alan Denbigh,published by Mitel, November 1999) investigated home-based teleworking as a solution to some of theseproblems and as a possible new source of employment for people with disabilities or other reasons to workfrom home. Their survey found that 4% of call centres were already using homeworkers to some extent, butthat 42% expected to do so in the future. One example of a company which has adopted this approach is theAutomobile Association (AA) which recently formally designated 10% of its breakdown staff as homeworkers.This scheme, which is very popular with the staff concerned, not only provides the AA with a workforceduring periods of peak demand (which correspond with rush hours) but also enables back-up staff to bebrought on-line within minutes in the case of emergencies such as severe traffic conditions.Another significant development during the past year was the convening by the Joseph Rowntree Foundationof a group of experts on homeworking in order to develop a policy agenda in relation to housing policy, inparticular the provision of housing which can accommodate homeworking for disadvantaged groups.The Labour Force Survey will continue to provide a source of information about teleworking carried out at orfrom the home. However a major new international research project, launched by the Institute forEmployment Studies will also by the end of 2000 provide information about other forms of ework. Followingon from IES's publication in 1999 of Teleworking and Globalisation (by Ursula Huws, Nick Jagger andSiobhan O'Regan) the EMERGENCE project will for the first time track employers' use of mobile working,call centre work and other forms of remote work, whilst mapping the locations involved in work supported byIST technologies. It will thus contribute to the development of a global picture of who is doing what work andwhere.WORK OPTIONS for staff at Lloyds TSB- 109 -
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