Pictured above: (l-r) David Lampitt - AWM, Malcolm Boswell -
ACAS, Pam Bradbury - NHS Direct, Frank Mills CUE, Tim Luft -
CUE and Lucy Prinsep - Business Link WM
Coventry University has launched a brand new initiative in the
West Midlands to promote the benefit of smarter working within the
public and private sector.
At the official launch in Birmingham on Monday (16 November),
Coventry University Enterprises Ltd (CUE) unveiled the programme
which is being funded by the West Midlands Regional Development
Agency and managed by CUE.
The aim of smarter working is to help organisations in the West
Midlands to adopt the kind of practices that could reduce overheads
but at the same time, increase profits and productivity.
Tim Luft, Programme Director at CUE said: "We bought
together several organisations at the launch that have already
introduced smarter working and heard them speak of the benefits
that came with it.
"The asset of any company is its workforce and smarter working
can make such a difference to their work/life balance. By
making their working day as flexible as possible, means that both
staff and customers are satisfied and in most cases, the
organisations benefit too."
Presentations included those from BT, NHS Direct, ACAS, Business
Link WM and Advantage West Midlands.
In BT's case alone, initiatives like 'hot-desking' has saved the
organisation £14m a year and key workers are retained after
maternity leave because of the flexible working hours. BT has a 99%
maternity returner rate and because of adopting smarter working,
absenteeism has decreased by 63%.
Tim Luft added: "We want to help other businesses to
achieve these results and that is why we believe smarter working is
the way forward. There are a number of initiatives under the
smarter working banner that we will be offering to businesses.
"Over the next few months, we will be working closely with
Chambers of Commerce throughout the West Midlands to provide
one-day workshops on how smarter working could work for them."
Coventry University Enterprises Ltd will be offering this
service to regional businesses initially and if it proves
successful, it could branch out nation-wide.
Tim Luft concluded: "Obviously, we are a commercial
enterprise and the service we provide does come at a cost but what
companies spend now by investing in smarter working will prove to
be a wise move when they see how much they have saved in the long
term."