Halton Housing Trust has transformed the working lives of its staff and improved productivity following its introduction of a ‘bring your own device’ strategy and remote working technologies.
The housing provider is now using a combination of Sunray, Citrix, Appsense, Air Watch and 1st Touch technologies, combined with widespread use of smartphones and tablet devices.
Lee Reevell, technical specialist, Halton Housing Trust, said, “I’m not aware of any other organisations of our size that uses so many technologies together to enable remote and flexible working. I’m particularly proud of our Sunray system which allows staff to work at any desk using a smartcard reader attached to the base of our phone system. The cards also open all of our doors and log people onto the phones.”
Halton Housing started using Sunray technology three years ago at a cost of around £26,000, with others systems being added since to give greater freedom to staff. Out of Halton Housing’s 280 staff, 75 of them now also have Citrix-enabled tablets so that they can work anywhere at any time.
Based on a recent internal survey, 82 per cent of staff now spend less time commuting to work and 96 per cent now work more productively since remote working was introduced three years ago. Office and transport costs have also been reduced owing to the use of hot-desking.
Sue Baxendale, director of human resources and operational development, Halton Housing Trust, said, “Remote and flexible working has made us more productive, reduced our staff sickness levels and given staff more control of their work-life balance. I thoroughly recommend that other housing providers embrace this new way of working.”
