Implementing and managing flexible working

The competitive environment of today is increasingly global and increasingly mobile just in time and just in place take on different meanings and the small company as well as the large can operate globally in ways impossible in the past. As the cost, availability and sophistication of technologies increase, the right support background is needed to encourage organisations and individuals to telework, and to develop appropriate consortia and human resource networks to exploit these technologies. Advanced communications technologies and services influence and will increasingly influence the way we work. They result in new patterns in global trade in services, influencing competitiveness and enabling the emergence of Virtual Enterprises. The information superhighways such as academic networks, in addition, facilitate telecooperation with the opening opportunities in East and Central Europe. Also, telework can be used for sustainable development in offering energy and pollution savings, and it is a tool which can assist organisations in BPR and the move to flatter structures, based around core activities. The increase in the information or knowledge content of products is now estimated to be on average about 70% of the value of the product; coupling this with the rapid Information and Communications technology developments and associated cost/performance; this has enormous implications for the way we work