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MATISSE Smarter Working

Next time you are in a traffic queue, late for an appointment or that important dinner date, give some thought for how you too might be more productive had you worked at least one day of your working week, locally or from home.
 
The MATISSE (Mobile And Teleworking Initiative for a Smarter South East) Smarter-Working programme is designed to encourage accelerated take-up of such modern flexible working methods.  The move away from traditional, 100 year old 9-5 fixed hours office based working is now helping many businesses better support their clients 24/7, reduce overheads, improve competitiveness, in ways that also support the environment, and modern day hectic family lifestyles.
 
These methods, including such things as staggered hours, home based and remote working were trialled in Hampshire during 2006 as part of the MATISSE Smarter-Working Pilot.  Based on the results of the pilot, doubling the number of the SE region’s estimated 386,000 home based workers with workers who currently commute by car (approx 70% of the working population) would potentially yield for each day worked from home per month:

• a driving time reduction of over 4 million hours
• a CO2 reduction of  8750 tonnes
• a commuting mileage reduction of 21 million miles
• fuel cost savings of £2.75 million!

A further projection suggests that by 2016, the hoped target of trebling the number of workers across the South-East region who work one or more days from home (or locally from a Community e-work centre or hotspot) will result in the saving of 1 billion peak-time commute time road miles per annum.

MATISSE runs a series of events and workshops, commute challenge weeks and has a forum for individuals and businesses to share their views, ask questions, suggest ideas and relay experiences of Smarter-Working.

To find out more, visit MATISSE website.