Change your working habits and save the planet!
September 2004 - Lifestyle Website
Want to have a higher standard of living, better quality of life and help the environment? If that sounds too good to be true then read on…It is already a practical proposition for almost any worker in the UK thanks to the spread of broadband internet services and recent advances in computer and digital technology and it is changing the UK workplace beyond recognition.
According to the Work Foundation’s Time to go Home report, BT has some 5,000 home workers, while 80% of British Airways’ Waterside complex staff work from home for one day each week. Research in the same report finds that around 12% of the US workforce is home-based. This translates into a 15% productivity improvement and a saving of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide per year per head from the car remaining unused in the driveway instead of stuck in traffic. Homeworkers also have a higher disposable income mainly due to savings on travel costs which can account for up to 30% of the typical salary for a UK employee.
Digital dictation technology is readily available. Recorders that were £300 18 months ago can now be purchased for less than £100. Files can be sent through high speed ADSL direct to online teams of typists and secretaries. Work can be processed in any location, freeing the employee from the bondage of the office. The ability to work in an office without walls is a reality. No company is too small to deploy home workers, says Tim Brill, head of analyst relations with IT consultant Avaya. “People think they need to be big but they don’t,” he says. “You get a lot of benefits; people can work effectively for longer!”
The benefits for the employer are also numerous, not least the freeing up of valuable office space as well as employing human and company resources more efficiently. “Hot-desking” is the latest industry fashion to be implemented by management gurus and it is fast becoming a crucial tool in the battle for competitive survival in the global marketplace. A number of transcription and secretarial companies are now providing services to home-workers and outworkers, enabling them to operate as productively at home as in the office.
OutSec has been supplying secretarial services online to British companies since the advent of digital recorders. OutSec has developed a sophisticated file transfer system called FileManager that allows direct upload to a secure client area on the Web without the need for email. This eliminates concerns about viruses, firewalls, size of attachments and ISP reliability. Clients can send and receive files from any location. Workers can operate in the office and on the move or, best of all, at home. Dictation is sent to secretaries with specific sector experience who transcribe and check the work before return. The same secretary is used for the benefit of continuity and this enables a close working relationship to develop.
Modern technology rarely makes life better, just more bearable. However the internet does offer the ability to change our working lives forever, and maybe help the planet a little too.
