Work Wise Week 2009

Work Wise Week this year will run from Tuesday, May 12, until Monday, May 18.
This will be the fourth year that Work Wise Week has been run by Work Wise UK, an initiative led by the TUC, CBI and British Chambers of Commerce which promotes smarter working practices, such as flexible, remote and mobile working, and working from home.

It aims to give half the working population, some 14 million people, the opportunity to work smarter by 2011.
"This year, smarter working is more relevant than ever," said Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK. "With the recession biting hard, businesses have to find ways of improving productivity, and smarter working practices are an integral part of the solution."

The themed days will take a different approach this year. The week will consist of the following:

Mobile Office Day (Tuesday, May 12) - the first day will encourage people to work while on the move, instead of travelling to a central office.

Remote Office Day (Wednesday, May 13) - this day will encourage people to use remote offices instead of travelling to a central office. These would include serviced office space, touch down centres or even hot spots such as coffee shops.

Virtual Meeting Day (Thursday, May 14) - this day will encourage people to conduct meetings by audio or video conferencing or go online instead of travelling to meetings.

National Work from Home Day (Friday, May 15) - this will be the fourth time this popular day has been run. It will encourage people to work from home on that day, instead of commuting to their usual place of work.

Smarter Travel Day (Monday, May 18) - the concluding day of the week will encourage people to travel outside peak times. Coming into work an hour early, and then leaving an hour early at the end of the day, or going an hour later, and leaving an hour later. This will reduce the peak rush hour, and make the commuting experience far more bearable for many.

Remote worker awards

Remote Employment has announced the Remote Worker Awards! They are currently working with prominent sponsors to highlight how remote and home working benefits the environment, business productivity and employees' quality of work life.
Everyone who works remotely or works from home and employers who have remote workers are able to enter. And anybody who wants to work from home can also enter to win a £15k home based franchise of their very own as well as other great prizes, one of them being a Garden Home Office worth £10k!
There are consumer awards for working professionals and anybody who wants a career change, as well as business categories for Home Businesses and Employers of Choice who allow their staff to work remotely or work from home. This is one of the UK's highest prize awards.
If you work remotely or work from home, have a home-based business or employ remote and home workers, the Remote Worker Awards is waiting to hear from you!
See more about judges, supporters, categories, terms and conditions, and how to enter at: Remote Employment

Practical tips on creating a work area at home

More than 20 million people work from home at least once a week in the U.S., according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2008 there were more than 2.5 million home based businesses in the UK.

Wireless technology has made this easy at a time when a struggling economy has forced many people to spend more time at home.

If you work at home full time or just require a place to sort mail, pay bills and check your e-mail, having a dedicated space to get the job done is essential.

Most people who didn't have a computer at home ten years ago have one now. A working area or office space when buying a house has now become a serious consideration for many. More and more people need a dedicated place at home to work from.

If you're short on space look for an unused pocket of space that can be fitted with shelves, cabinets, (electrical) power and a chair. Use your imagination! A Washington D.C. architect converted a bedroom cupboard in her apartment into her work space. She removed the clothing rod and installed shelves and a countertop that flips down as needed.

She also removed the cupboard door and replaced it with a bookshelf on wheels that's connected to a ceiling track. When she wants to close up her office, she simply slides the bookshelf in front of it. (For the non-architects among us, keeping the door works, too. So does installing a curtain rod to hang a pretty panel in place of a door.)

If that converting your cupboard sounds like a it of a gargantuan task, then consider smaller adjustments such as placing glass over an old table with an uneven surface, so you can keep the table and transform it into a functional desk.

Think beyond boxes for storage. Use jars and trays to hold supplies, or coloured boxes or plastic drawers on wheels.


Whether you have an entire room, a converted closet or a tiny nook carved out of a corner, the basic essentials for any well-run office are the same. You need a desk, a comfortable chair, storage, paper and pen, and proper lighting. You don't have to spend a lot.

Don't overlook vertical space, where tall bookcases or hanging shelves can provide extra storage. Using vertical space makes a space look cleaner, neater and less cluttered.

Have you got any useful tips for creating a working area at home? Write in and tell us! Share your ideas and mistakes, what you saved money on and what you indulged in.

Searches in the UK for home-working positions on the increase

As more people have internet access and understand more about the world wide web, and as technology progresses and continues to develop, so working from home or anywhere, being a mobile worker has moved away from the niches of media and IT into the public domain.

Fuelling this is the global recession which has led to the highest level of unemployment in 17 years in the UK and inflation hits an all-time high, a figure which is likely to rise as more job cuts are made. The result is more people working from home, or searching for home-based jobs.

According to UK job search website TipTopJobs.com, figures released in February show that people applying for home-working positions on job boards have almost doubled in the past month.

Applications for home-based roles during the month of September leapt to 1,673 from 1,176 in August – an increase of 42 per cent.

As 26 per cent of individuals cited family responsibilities as the main reason for seeking home-based employment, it is evident that worries over child care costs and lack of work-life balance are the key factors behind the increasing volume of home-working job board applications.

Home-working job searches may indicate lack of confidence in economy. Corinne Dauncey, Careers Expert from TipTopJob.com, said: “We forecast an increase in home-based applications as it’s becoming more acceptable to work from home. However such a sharp rise is not in line with our predications. We believe it’s another worrying sign that consumer confidence is low and that candidates are worried about the current economic turmoil.

“Economists believe headline rates of inflation are now set to fall back, with oil prices having recently dropped, so it will be interesting to see what happens to these applications, whether they continue to rise or fall in line with inflation.”

In the meantime, for those looking to work from home, there are a wide range of vacancies available through online job boards and job search engines. As long as workers have access to the internet and a telephone, it has become an ideal solution for those struggling with a long commute, redundancy or childcare issues.

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