Working wisely.

If your boss asked you to work an extra day a week without pay, you would probably tell him where to go. But that's precisely what the average British commuter does - simply travelling to and from work.

The UK has the longest commuting times in Europe - on average seven hours a week, or the equivalent of 47 additional working days each year - double that of the Italians and Swedes. The nation's average working week is also among the highest in Europe - with nearly five million employees working on average an extra day a week. The average UK worker commutes 2,906 miles a year by car. City commuters cover shorter distances but spend more time behind the wheel because of increased traffic congestion. Commuting to work causes pollution, adds to our stress levels and means we get to spend less time with our families.

We are committed to changing all that and will help to spearhead a campaign to encourage more organisations to adopt smarter working practices - such as flexible working, remote working, mobile working and working from home. The goal is to increase UK business productivity and competitiveness while reducing transport congestion and pollution, improving health, assisting disadvantaged groups and harmonising work and family commitments. The Work Wise UK http://www.workwiseuk.org/ initiative was launched at a recent summit in London at the start of the three-year programme, organised by InterForum - a not-for-profit organisation that helps British businesses to trade electronically.

No one questions that organisations have to become more and more agile in meeting external demands. Unless the UK changes some of its cost structures, it will not be able to compete with the emerging economies of China and India. As leaders, we must apply the same thinking to our own people and the growing outside demands placed upon them.

Flexible working is business as usual. It increases productivity, cuts costs, motivates people and releases more potential. Flexible working also encourages the inclusion of many groups of people for whom traditional employment patterns are unsuitable - such as people with mobility problems, parents with young children or people who care for an elderly relative.

We are keen to share the success of smarter working – all of our engineering staff have the ability to work from home. We have individuals spread across the south-east, involved in different aspects of our projects, working against tight deadlines and having to differentiate in an ever more competitive market. At the same time, there is a healthy belief that family life is more important, to most sane people, than the workplace. We are passionate about smarter working and hope the Work Wise UK initiative will serve as a wake up call for public and private sectors to embrace change in working styles, policies and behaviours.

The benefits of adopting smarter working include reducing office space running costs, staff take less sick leave and can be up to 20 per cent more productive, staff retention rate following maternity leave is higher when compared with the UK average, and as a result of staff travelling less they are saving fuel - resulting in less CO2 being generated.