• silicon.com
• Management
• CIO Insights

By silicon.com, 4 May 2007 15:42

If you're not working remotely already - either from home, wandering around the campus or on the road - chances are it's only a matter of time until you do. Probably your colleagues are right now logged into the office from anywhere from the US to the M25. Great - so your workers are happier, more efficient - but are you missing out on the hidden benefits of flexible working?

Remote working is no longer a 'nice to have': research out this week showed more techies are actually factoring in tele- or flexible working when deciding on whether to accept a new job. Another study found one-third of us have time-shifted our day and no longer work nine-to-five.

And there's no doubt technology has spurred on this revolution - as we pack more and more functionality into BlackBerrys and laptops and gradually erode desktops as workers' primary PC, employees are finding it ever easier to work when they're not in the office.

But for those trying to make a case for flexible working, it can sometimes still be a case of persuading your manager it's not just an excuse to watch Bargain Hunt in your pyjamas.

More fuel then, if fuel were needed: flexible working - and the tech that goes along with it - is good for the environment and therefore good for companies' bank balances.

Speaking this week, Dr Peter Arnfalk of Lund University, revealed new reasons to love flexible working. As flexible working grows, so will workers dependence on public transport - after all, while it's hard to work at the wheel of a car, it's not hard to do so on a train seat, especially now wi-fi is increasingly available on the UK's public transport system.

Flexible working will also allow employees to dodge rush hours when they do have to drive - meaning fewer traffic jams and reduced carbon emissions. And, of course, web and phone conferencing can avoid the necessity to travel to meetings - and even to work itself - and therefore abolish transport emissions altogether.

And as workforces grow ever more dispersed, physical media is increasingly going digital - software is now a service, documents are stored on servers rather than in paper form and so on - meaning less manufacturing of CDs, paper and other hard copies.

The same research that found techies clamouring for flexible working also found half of those surveyed thought their requests for such a scheme would be rebuffed. Perhaps those in charge of granting mobile working options should remember flexibility is not just good for the individuals and good for the company - it's good for the environment too.