As the economic slowdown impacts revenue and profits, it is those organisations with long term sustainability and competitive advantage in their vision that will be best positioned when the market turns. Careful management of today's challenges, balanced with a focus on the triple bottom line, people, profits, and environment will ensure that you are well positioned to reap the rewards.

The argument for flexible work practices in organisations now goes beyond whether the implementation of those would serve to attract and retain staff.

From January 1 2010 it will become a legislative requirement that as an employer you must listen to the requests of many employees who will have the right to request flexible workplace arrangements. This legislation will serve to open up the doors for employer/employee dialogue around what alternative employment arrangements can be made that will contribute to a healthier, more efficient and effective work environment.

The flexibility argument however has thus far ignored the positive impact it will have on the environment! Flexible work and flexible transportation programs are enabling visionary employers to achieve well beyond their competitors when it comes to their triple bottom line goals.

A company demonstrating innovation in the area of making flexibility green, is Applied Materials who have won numerous best practice awards including "World's Most Admired Companies" Fortune Magazine 2009 and the "100 Best Corporate Citizens" CRO Magazine, March 2009. One of their very successful programs is "Applied Anywhere" which enables over 2500 employees to vary their place of work. With capability to work from home, in the office or customer environments, the company is saving hundreds of wasted man hours and wasted fuel. One could also assume that less people in the office also means a reduced office space requirement and savings in utilities usage.

Yahoo has taken a similar view whereby their high tech flexible work practices allows people to work from home or simply manage their own hours. This assists with reduction in fuel usage both from not travelling to the office but also by avoiding the crawl of peak hour traffic. Flexible work is being created so that all unnecessary travel is eliminated!

For more information on creating flexible work environments please contact Liana Gorman, Director of Part Time Online on 0423 451145