Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Will mileage charging increase homeworking numbers?

That's certainly the opinion of UK MD of Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Steve Kendall-Smith, who is calling on the government to provide tax breaks for firms that adopt flexible working (more details here). Kendall-Smith says: “Encouraging more companies to adopt mobile and home working will help to ease congestion and reduce environmental damage. Businesses are much more likely to do that if they are given a positive incentive. By giving companies that invest in mobile technology a tax break, the government can cut the number of people travelling on the UK’s roads every day, reduce carbon emissions and encourage the further use of technology by businesses and in the home. If there is no positive incentive to stop using their cars, business people will simply feel shackled and that will not be good for the UK economy. Providing tax incentives for businesses that introduce home working and make use of video-conferencing and remote collaboration systems would also be a great way of overcoming this and will benefit the economy.”

Matt Whip though is not so sure. At hit ITRP blog he suggests that Flexible working has never looked more remote, largely because he believes 'bosses' are still suspicious of what their staff are up to. I'm sure that's still the case in some companies, but the statistics seem to suggest that attitudes are changing.

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