Member Article

Durham County Council signs up to 'smarter working'

One of the region’s largest employers has become the latest organisation to sign up to an innovative campaign aimed at promoting a less traditional approach to the working day. Durham County Council is the second council in the region to pledge its support to the Work Wise North East ‘smarter working’ initiative.

The council, which employs up to 19,000 people, has already tested a flexible working pilot to identify the potential benefits that smarter working practices can bring to both employers and employees.

Chief executive Mark Lloyd said: “Work Wise North East is a fantastic campaign and we are really keen to support it. Our flexible working trials have been a huge success and we are planning to introduce a number of other smarter working practices to ensure that we have a happier, healthier and more productive work force which can help us to deliver even better services to the communities we serve.

“As an employer, we have found that flexible working can reduce sickness absence, improve productivity, motivate staff, encourage staff loyalty and help staff to achieve a good work-life balance, so it’s a win-win situation for both the council and its employees.”

Phil Flaxton, Work Wise chief executive, said: “Signing up the region’s largest employer is a real feather in the cap of the Work Wise North East campaign. We now have the two largest authorities committed to this campaign - Northumberland and Durham County Councils - and we hope other pro-active local authorities will follow their lead. The benefits brought about by flexible working are impossible for employers to overlook.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .