#RestartMK – Return to Work

A flexible and active approach to planning your workforce’s post lockdown commute.

Whilst many workplaces have been working remotely during restrictions, now lockdown is slowly being eased, organisations may face challenges planning the restart and return to workplaces in Milton Keynes.

Current guidance for business is that if people cannot work from home and have to travel for work, they should first consider walking and cycling or consider driving, to help ensure there is enough capacity for those who need to travel on public transport to do so safely.

The continuation of remote working is helping to keep traffic and congestion low, enabling key workers and those who are unable to work at home to travel without disruption and allows capacity on public transport.

Throughout these uncertain times many workplaces have found that they can maintain productivity and outputs.  Having this flexibility safeguards businesses against future disruptions.

An added benefit has been a reduction in emissions produced by vehicles nationwide, which means we have seen a fall in air pollution levels.

While we have gained a positive impact on traffic levels and lower pollution rates, its not viable to continue remote working in the long-term for most organisations, for all the workforce.

The key challenges to overcome of a returning workforce will be;

• Social Distancing – travel whilst adhering to social distancing guidelines
• Phased Return – getting the right staff back when you need them
• On-site facilities – ensuring the right provisions are available
• Environmental and wellbeing – enabling a safe and healthy return for your workforce

We recognise that with social distancing in place, planning the journey to work could prove challenging for some. Therefore, it has never been more important to develop and deliver an effective Travel Plan in order to ensure that everyone can travel as safely, efficiently and actively as possible.  A Travel Plan is a strategy for travel behaviour change, it is essential that the travel plans focus is now on ensuring that those who can walk and cycle have the infrastructure, information and confidence to do so in order to reduce the demand on the public transport and road network.

How can a Travel Plan help you?

1. Assess employees accessibility to your site, by limiting the risk of social contact.
2. Enabling onsite provisions to be evaluated based on anticipated demand and a strong business case to focus resource.
3. Helps to make informed decisions, giving confidence in the implementation of returning the workforce.

To assist in the development and implementation of a Travel Plan, the Modeshift STARS online platform provides a comprehensive Travel Plan tool that assists in creating, implementing and monitoring your Travel Plan.

To get registered on Modeshift STARS and start working on your own effective Travel Plan, organisations should contact us or visit the Work Smarter section for ideas and information to help get your staff back to work in a flexible and active way.