Newcastle City Council ramps up home working

Newcastle expects to have 250 home workers in the next two years

Newcastle City Council is planning to increase its home workers to around 250 over the next two years, as part of an organisation-wide transformation programme with IT services supplier Fujitsu.

The programme has been running for five years and has already saved £28.5m across different services.

The council claims that this has improved its focus on customers and created a better work-life balance for staff.

Newcastle has a small number of staff working at home already but has ambitious plans to increase the facility, according to Ray Ward, head of the City Service at the council.

"We are about to seriously ramp up our home workers to a target of 250 over the next 18 months to two years, so we'll be revolutionising the way we work," he said.

"We will be able to sell buildings and break leases with break points coming up, generating savings in asset management."

Newcastle has found that allowing staff to work flexibly has increased productivity, but warned that organisations have a responsibility to make the experience right for employees.

The council has replicated the office desktop at employees' homes through functions such as document management.

"We have found that people working at home tend to have less absence through illness and are incredibly flexible. They are wrapping their work around their home life," said Ward.

"But it is a complete change for the organisation. It is not a case of giving someone a laptop and waving them off. There needs to be a support structure and proper arrangements for making sure remote staff still feel part of the organisation."

The council, which previously made most of its own software, saved £500,000 replacing its mainframe with a Fujitsu product, and a consolidated payroll and HR system from software giant SAP cut pay and pensions processing staff by half.

The overall programme has helped Newcastle meet efficiency and accessibility targets, improving the delivery of services to citizens and reducing costs by replacing old systems and practices and cutting down on staff and unnecessary premises.

"A big benefit of the transformation has been a big improvement in staff. The roles are fewer, but bigger and more varied, and staff are more engaged," said Ward.

"And we are now more oriented towards customers, having completely changed the way we allow people to access our services. We have put pay points in local shops, so people can now pay their rent while buying a pint of milk."