BT was an early adopter of mobile working practices and today 70 per cent of its employees work flexibly.

Originally, BT saw it as a way to reduce its punishing property costs, but it actually provides the company with far more than the £500m annual savings on real estate.

One of the main benefits is that people’s productivity increases by between 15 per cent and 31 per cent.

‘Anyone who works in productivity knows how hard it is to achieve even a two per cent increase,’ says Caroline Waters, director of people and policy human resources (HR) at BT.

The choice to work flexibly is voluntary. And because such a high percentage do choose to work this way, BT has developed a one-stop-shop service where people can find all the information they need about equipment, types of flexible working or tax.

Having so many people working away from the office does mean a change in management style, but ultimately: ‘Good management practice is just good management practice,’ says Waters.

But the way people’s performance is assessed has to change: measuring people on what they produce, not how long they stay in the office.

A manager’s role is try to motivate staff and provide them with the tools they need to be more productive – they are coaches more than bosses.

For that to work, managers and employees need to build up trust and rapport. ‘There’s a myth that managers think they have control if someone is sitting by them,’ says Waters.

Measuring people by results also means people are promoted on their merits, and, at BT not being in the office all the time is not ‘career death’.

‘Firms have to think about this holistically,’ says Waters. ‘You can have the right technology, but you also need the right people policies. You have to see the whole picture and the culture and behaviour will have to change.’

Getting the all-important work-life balance right is something that comes down to company culture and managers and co-workers keeping an eye on each other.

‘If the boss sends an email at 11pm, it doesn’t mean you have to reply at 11.05pm. People are their own best judge,’ she says. ‘There’s no expectation of an immediate response. If people are naturally inclined that way, they will work hard where ever they are. Line managers can tell when people are working too long.’

Co-workers and managers learn an individual’s style and work preferences. Some people may prefer to work at midnight, similarly some people prefer to work intensively over short periods and then ease off at other times.

Working apart means people make more of an effort to keep in contact – not just ringing for work reasons, but simply for a chat.

‘People will ring and say: I’m in between meetings and I just thought that I would call to see how you are,’ says Waters.

‘Because people are talking so much more they are getting a lot more benefit out of people as a result. No matter what human resources people say, there is no point having the best people in your organisations unless they can work together.’