“Working Smarter Will Aid Economic Recovery,” Says Independent
“Working Smarter Will Aid Economic Recovery,” Says Independent Travel Company
BOLTON, England, May 16, 2012-
An independent travel company is calling for more UK businesses to adopt smarter
working practices to secure their trading futures, aid economic recovery and boost staff
wellbeing.
Leading travel company Travel Counsellors is supporting ‘National Work from Home Day’,
which will be held on Friday 18 May and is part of national Work Wise Week (beginning 13
May). Now in its seventh year, the initiative aims to raise awareness of the benefits to
employers of flexible, remote and mobile working, as well as working from home.
Managing Director Steve Byrne comments; “The business environment is changing and with
it the nature of how businesses operate is changing too. Adopting a flexible working
structure for staff leads to greater productivity and increased staff wellbeing. It also
means that our agents can be available at a time to suit their customers outside of normal
working hours, thus providing a more personal travel service to their clients. In fact,
one third of Travel Counsellors’ business is done after 5pm in the evening, indicating
that customers want to talk travel at a time convenient to them.”
According to a recent analysis of official statistics, employees spend nearly 200
hours a year travelling to and from work, adding up to approximately five weeks extra work
per year. With the longest commute time of nearly 40 minutes per journey, the TUC is
advising Londoners during this year’s Olympics to take the opportunity to embrace smarter
practices, such as working from home or staggered start and finish times.
Launched in 1994, Travel Counsellors was one of the first companies in the UK to
enable professional travel agents to run their own travel businesses from home, and now
has over 730 home-based leisure and corporate travel professionals located throughout the
UK, with a further 400 plus overseas. Over 75% of Travel Counsellors’ agents are women,
and 35% of those have children aged under five. With busy parents making up over three
quarters of the company’s staff, the company says that more professionals should seize the
opportunity to work from home, pointing out that 81% of its agents say their work/life
balance has improved since joining the company.
Byrne says; “Travel Counsellors supports the argument for smarter working practices
and in particular National Work from Home Day, which is why we introduced an opportunity
for people from outside of the travel industry to join the company through a franchise
scheme called The Travel Academy, enabling more customer service professionals to reap the
benefits of this level of flexible working. Each of our travel agents is empowered to
manage their working life around their home life, or vice-versa.”
For further information about Travel Counsellors’ Travel Academy visit
http://www.tctravelacademy.co.uk. For more information on Work Wise Week and National
Work from Home Day visit http://www.workwiseuk.org
Source: Travel Counsellors
For further information contact: Victoria Fox / Carolyn Parish, Tel: +44-1204-536-030 / 191, E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)