Home and smart working strategy

"Strategies for implementing home, smart and mobile working – not just the technology but the policies and procedures as well"

Most councils are realising that staff who are desk-bound, because of limitations such as paper-based filing systems, and the lack of wireless networks, are less effective at working wth customers than those who have more flexibility to work where they need to. 

Achieving this degree of flexibility is not straightforward, and it involves a range of issues, technical, organisational and legal. It is important therefore to develop and adopt a strategy which tackles these issues and ensures that best use is made of the council's staff resources.

 A strategy will normally address:

• Home and mobile working - enabling staff to have the flexibility to work at clients' locations, or at home
• Hot-desking - enabling staff the flexibiltiy to work where it suits, and the council to reduce the office provision for its staff and workers
• Employment and HR issues arising from this flexibility (insurance implications, taxation and contractual implications)
• Network technical issues
• Access and security issues
• Business continuity/resilience issues