Flexibility across the board

You recognise the benefits of flexible working. You may even have tried small-scale pilot schemes. But attempting to introduce an effective, organisation-wide programme is different. What works for a few people won’t necessarily work for everyone, and somebody has to take responsibility for co-ordinating multiple departments. BT can fulfil that role, enabling you to focus on core business issues.

A practical approach to flexible working

BT Flexible Working Services provide not only the expertise and experience you need to help create your flexible working strategy, but also the practical skills and resources to execute it. With our help and a proven methodology, you can quickly introduce and manage a range of different work styles.

To make flexible working work for you, we take a holistic view of your organisation. This provides you with an objective overview of your people, property, processes and organisational culture – so you can see where flexibility can be most beneficial.

We help you with every aspect of your home, mobile and in-office flexible working programme, getting to know your business and incorporating your needs into a well-rounded, practical programme for change.

Cut costs without cutting resources

A large English city council wanted to introduce flexible working to reduce its property costs. BT designed and implemented an initiative that not only cut costs by £3 million in less than two years, but also boosted individual and team productivity.

Working with key council personnel, including HR, property, finance, IT and employee representatives, BT gained a thorough understanding of the issues. We were then able to select appropriate work styles and provide suitable options for all affected council employees.

The BT strategy means that less than 25 per cent of employees based at the council’s headquarters need a permanent desk. Our comprehensive support system helped ease the transition, enabling council employees to confidently and successfully move to new ways of working.

True flexibility is all in the mind

Successfully introducing flexible working requires a fundamental change in attitudes. You need to help people adapt to new models of thinking and working, encouraging a move away from the territorialism of the “one person, one desk” model. Flexible working works best when there is widespread acceptance, and you can achieve this by adopting a proven methodology for change.

Build on our flexible working experience

BT has successfully introduced flexible working programmes both internally and for our customers. Our own Workstyle programme is one of the largest flexible working initiatives in Europe, with:

• More than 13,700 BT people contractually employed to work from home.
• Approximately 64,000 BT employees able to work independently from any location, at any time.
• Online booking systems for rooms and facilities in more than 170 buildings around the globe.

Our Flexible Working Services are delivered by a dedicated team with more than a decade of international experience. We have worked with organisations of all sizes, ranging from multinational corporations to government agencies and law firms, so you can be confident that we can help you achieve the results you want.

Benefit from our holistic approach

BT Flexible Working Services are designed to help you create and implement a consistent strategy for your entire organisation. We take into account people, property, processes and organisational culture so that you can:

• Attract and retain superior staff: flexible working is a top priority for highly educated jobseekers and skilled professionals.
• Employ a range of work styles: use proven tools to effectively manage and measure employee performance across different work styles.
• Improve employee interaction: move to more fluid, project-based methods of working to boost inter-departmental collaboration.
• Meet sustainability targets: reduce your carbon footprint by reducing commuting and using office space more effectively.
• Increase business agility: quickly and easily adapt to changing market conditions, and respond more rapidly to customer needs.
• Comply with legislation: ensure that you are meeting legal requirements to offer flexible working to parents, carers and people with disabilities.
• Improve business continuity: minimise downtime in case of major incidents, as employees remain productive by working remotely or from home.

Apply our blueprint to your organisation

BT Flexible Working Services apply proven methodologies to ease the transition to new ways of working. With our help, an organisation-wide programme that would require months or years of internal preparation could be launched in less than 12 weeks.

BT has helped numerous clients to introduce flexible working in this way, including:

• A major pharmaceutical organisation, which avoided the cost of sourcing additional premises.
• A legal firm, which can now draw upon a wider talent pool.
• A distribution company, which centralised its services, closing smaller offices without significant redundancies.

Introduce a sustainable programme for change

BT Flexible Working Services can help you to:

• Save on property costs: fewer workers in the office at any one time and more shared facilities mean that you need less space and can downsize your office estate.
• Drive down operational costs: realise savings on travel expenses, recruitment and training, heating, lighting and security.
• Increase productivity: introducing work styles that better meet the needs of your employees can reduce sick days and boost morale.
• Reduce equipment costs: flexible working and technologies such as IP telephony can reduce the number of phones, desks and computers you require.

Business as usual

Introducing flexible working will require technological change. Home and mobile workers, for example, will need to access their files from any location. But it is managing this change that is most important. You must ensure that end users are able to continue working as normal, without having to learn a whole new set of skills.

Experience as a vendor and a user

BT is one of the world’s leading proponents of flexible working solutions, both as a vendor and a user. Our own Workstyle flexible working programme has led to BT being lauded by the UK Government as Britain’s corporate leader in agile working.

Flexible Working Services reduced our office estate from more than 1.9 million square metres to 743,000 square metres, saving around €725 million per annum. The new BT Centre in London, for example, acts as a base for more than 8,000 employees, who successfully share just 1,600 workstations.

We have also helped clients as diverse as the UK Ministry of Defence, Accenture and NHS 24 (an online and telephone-based healthcare information service) to successfully implement flexible working initiatives.

Get the most out of flexible working

Consultancy

We will prepare a comprehensive business case on the advantages that flexible working can bring to your organisation. Key aspects include:

• Employee inclusion strategies.
• Best practices and lessons learned from other deployments.
• Target setting.
• Equipment recommendations and costing.

Property Services

BT can help you move to new offices, refurbish existing premises or rationalise your property portfolio. We take into account property, technology and organisational culture by:

• Collaborating with your own teams.
• Planning efficient workspaces.
• Sourcing appropriate technologies.
• Working with trusted partners and suppliers.
• Automating building systems.
• Managing projects.
• Transforming your working environment.
• Managing facilities.

Managed Service

Inter-departmental cooperation is vital to the success of your flexible working programme. BT can help bring your people together by:

• Raising awareness.
• Improving internal communications.
• Providing management training.
• Introducing new tools and technologies.
• Launching dedicated Workstyle management software.
• Ensuring employees have access to information.
• Progressively implementing flexible working.
• Providing a dedicated helpdesk service.
• Procuring external resources.
• Enabling multi-disciplinary projects.

Involve everyone for an effective solution

In addition to numerous projects in the private sector, BT has helped several UK local authorities to introduce flexible working. An English council, for example, was able to save more than £3 million in property costs in just two years. By identifying and implementing the most appropriate flexible working styles, BT enabled the council to free up and sub-let much of its existing office space.

BT also helped a Welsh council to introduce home and mobile working by bringing together representatives from groups such as human resources, facilities management, IT and the trade unions. By ensuring that everyone was actively involved in the process, we were able to allay any concerns and introduce a programme that cost-effectively satisfied the council’s requirements.

Minimise costs with a proven system

BT Flexible Working Services use our proven Workstyle system, which has been applied around the globe. Programmes designed for organisations such as Accenture and the UK Ministry of Defence are actually 80 per cent alike, cutting down on procedural and application development costs.

BT can help reduce the cost of enabling technologies such as IP networks. Our group buying power and collaborative relationships enable us to negotiate preferential rates on everything from hardware to furniture and stationery.

We also provide a single point of contact to assist in the ongoing management of any new technologies. We can offer a dedicated helpdesk so that any problems can be raised and dealt with directly by our technical teams.