What we do
We connect talented people to remote jobs that fit their lives
We help companies find skilled, diverse candidates
We help companies and communities to cut carbon emissions from commuting
The geography trap
Most of us still look for jobs close to our homes with a manageable commute. In the UK alone, we spend 22 million hours each day just travelling to work. Commuting means high travel costs and often extra child-care costs too. Many part-time roles become uneconomical once these extras are added in.
Job hunting locally can really limit your options, especially if you have family commitments that restrict the distance you can travel. Options often shrink further still if you need flexible hours, and as a result, millions of people are underemployed or have dropped out of the workforce altogether.
By the numbers
- 1.5m well-qualified part-time workers are in low-skilled, low paid jobs. (Source: Timewise and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation).
- 64% of Mums surveyed by Digital Mums reported taking work below their skill level because the role offered flexibility.
- After a career break 32% of women could not find a suitable job in their field, and 21% found a job in their field but at a lower level than they were before their career break (Source: Working Mums Annual Survey 2015).
- One million people aged over 50 are struggling to re-enter the workforce (Source: Business in the Community, The Missing Million.)
- 37% of working mothers believe home working is the most valuable form of flexible working – and 66% think working from home is the most likely factor to encourage them back to work full time (Source: Working Mums Annual Survey 2015)
- Commuting accounts for 25% of the distance we travel by car, contributing significantly to UK carbon emissions. Including cars, busses and rail, commuting accounts for 24% of CO2 emissions from passenger transport.
The perception gap
We already have the technology to work closer to home and more flexibly. Around 4.2m of us (almost 14% of the UK workforce) now work from home regularly. Yet job seekers are often unaware that a fully remote career is a realistic option, or think that remote careers are only a possibility for a handful of high-tech sectors. While it’s true that tech and digital firms are among the leading remote employers, many of their vacancies are in fields such as customer support, marketing, design, accounting – the list goes on.
That’s where we come in. myworkhive lists only remote jobs, direct from employers. We’re working hard to build connections with a wide range of remote employers across many different sectors.
Less commuting means less carbon emissions
Car journeys account for around 13% of all UK carbon emissions. Since commuting accounts for one quarter of all UK car journeys (by distance), commuting has a significant impact on CO2 emissions, not to mention other forms of pollution and traffic congestion. In major cities across the UK, pollutants from vehicles regularly exceed safe limits. Boosting the number of people working remotely is a quick and simple way to take cars off the road, with no expensive investment needed – helping companies and communities to reduce their carbon footprint.
The skills gap
Some 15% of UK tech firms report that they have struggled to fill vacancies locally. Remote working can take the headache out of recruiting, providing a much wider choice of candidates. Done well, remote working can cut office costs, boost productivity and reduce staff turnover. Yet hiring and managing productive, successful remote teams is a skill in itself. We help SMEs, social enterprises and startups to go remote, sharing helpful guides and good practice so companies can learn from each other.
Bring remote to a wider audience
We’re working hard to reach a diverse audience, including working mothers and others who may not have considered a remote career.
As we grow, we will support people’s remote skills and remote career journeys via information, coaching and training.
Information and support for companies
We help companies fill skill gaps by reaching remote-ready candidates.
We share resources that support remote-working best practice and help organisations to learn from each other, so they can build happy, productive remote teams.
Campaigning for remote as a green solution
We will research how remote work and coworking can reduce carbon emissions (and other pollution) from commuting.
We’ll share what we find with companies and communities looking to shrink their carbon footprint.
We put people and planet first
- We are a 100% remote and flexible company.
- We have big goals: we want to help reduce underemployment and cut carbon emissions from commuting.
- We’ll keep working to cut our own carbon footprint. (Our home office is already powered by lovely renewables.)
We’ll track our social and environmental impact and let you know how we’re getting on.
Our story
“Working in the charity and media sectors over 15 years, I often worked with colleagues in different locations and time zones. When I moved to a rural area with my young family, there weren’t any jobs nearby in my field, so I worked remotely as freelancer. I kept meeting others – often Mums with years of work experience – who were struggling to find jobs locally that made the most of their skills but also fitted with their commitments.
It seemed crazy that we were all looking within the same local, ‘commutable’ geographic area, when the technology now exists to work from pretty much anywhere. I began researching remote jobs, and realised there were lots of interesting, innovative companies, many of them in the tech and digital sectors, who were comfortable hiring remote staff – but they often weren’t really connecting with the people who needed that flexibility the most. I had my ‘light bulb’ moment, and myworkhive was born.
Green issues are really important to me, so I was shocked to learn that commuting contributes so much to UK carbon emissions. It seems like such a huge, avoidable waste of resources. If we all worked from home (or even just closer to home) more often, we could really have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions, as well as improving traffic congestion and air quality.”
Lucy ElkinIntroducing our first Advisor:
Emma Piper is our fantastic marketing, PR and comms guru. Founder of Pied Piper Communications, Emma helps startups (including myworkhive) to develop and implement marketing and comms strategies.
Emma is also a major advocate for remote working, driven by her personal experience of running a successful business whilst also caring for her family and meeting the needs of her son, who has a serious health condition. As Emma says, “I’ve worked from home, on the move, and from hospital bedsides – have laptop, will work.” Emma knows first-hand that remote and flexible working can help skilled people like her to stay in the workforce.
If you are looking for a full range of PR, comms, marketing and social-media services, from a team passionate about all things startup, connect with Emma on Twitter @PiedPiperComms.
Emma Piper
Our thanks to
Thanks so much to the following organisations for their support:
