By the numbers
- 37% of working Mums 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 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.
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 parents 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.
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