The boss
Jan 22 2008 by Sarah Judd, Evening Gazette
DEREK RICHARDSON, above, is the Middlesbrough-based general manager for the North-east and Cumbria at BT Open Reach.
The company offers industrial services support and maintenance for 400 telecommunications service providers, including BT, Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali.
Mr Richardson employs 1200 people across the North, including 300 in the Tees Valley. And two-thirds of his staff on Teesside adopt flexible working practices.
There are 16 variants on BT’s working week, with staff working different shifts on different days, typically between 7am and 7pm. For example, while some staff work three, 12-hour days, others work a shorter day six days a week.
The company is also flexible on offering staff the same day off each week, and is sympathetic to staff meeting their child care arrangements.
“We are flexible in terms of when employees start and when they finish as customers require calls at different times of the day. We also offer flexi time for some of our clerical staff, and some of these work from home,” said Mr Richardson. “Because we have people spread throughout the Tees Valley engineers drive to their first job straight from home and this saves them coming in to the centre of town. This also makes sense environmentally and cuts down congestion on the roads.
“But incorporating flexible working is an ongoing process because just when you match the needs of employees and customers, those needs change, staff get promoted, leave, go to another job or retire. But it makes us as an employer more attractive. From a cost point of view, making sure our staff’s normal working hours cover the needs of customers also means we don’t have to pay overtime.
“It is worth businesses considering flexible working opportunities for staff, however, it always has to be balanced between the needs of the individual, the needs of business and the needs of the customer.”
The worker
ANDY GRAHAM is a regional sales manager for BT who converted his garage at home in Stokesley into an office after joining the company in 1999.
He is married with two children, Connor, 12 and Rachael, 16, and believes flexible working has given him an ideal work-life balance.
“I was contracted as a home worker by the company, and after spending the first week using a laptop connected to a telephone line in my bedroom, I found it was not a satisfactory way of spending a day,” said Andy.
“So I converted a garage and everything clicked into place when I had this physical space to work from.
“At first, the children didn’t realise that although Dad was home, he had to work and the family had to learn the rules of having a home-working parent. There was probably about a three-month transitional period for the family getting used to it.
“Now there is no way I would move back to a situation where I had to drive to an office every day.
“The companies I have worked for in the past, have always had offices in Leeds or Newcastle, so on days when I wasn’t visiting clients I was expected to turn up at the office and faced a commute of two to three hours, which was not the most pleasant part of a working day.
“Working from home, BT wins and I win, because the company gets more effective use of my time than they would if I was sitting in traffic driving to work. I crack on with my work and I’m not distracted by the office atmosphere.
“Two to three days of the week are spent out visiting clients, but when I’m at home, I know I’m going to get a good, productive day’s work done.
“It also means I can put the tea on, take the children to school and pick them up and do the odd chore around the house when I am taking a break from work.
“I also get to have my tea with the family - something that wasn’t possible when I was commuting from Newcastle or Leeds in my previous jobs - so for me, home working works for the family and the business.
“I’m also conscious of the environmental benefits of not driving, and my carbon footprint must be much smaller now.”
“The transition for people who work from home five days a week must be a very big one.”
“One negative element for them must be losing the social aspect of work, but because I’m out and about some of the week, that’s not an issue for me.
“If I am ever looking for another job, flexible working and not having to commute too far would be a major consideration for me.”
