How employees get to work may seem an irrelevance to employers – and yet it isn’t.
Numerous studies show that employees who cycle (or walk) to work:
- Are 15% more productive at work
- Take half as many sick days off work
- Make fewer task errors
- Are healthier. One Australian study showed healthy employees were three times more productive than unhealthy ones.
Increasingly the convenience of being able to commute to work by bike is part of deciding where to work. In Silicon Valley, particularly, employees are attracted by its bike-friendliness. So there may be an “employer of choice” benefit in cycle friendliness.
However, cycling to work still needs to be an employee-led decision. There can be legal implications to “in the course of employment” and travelling to and from work is still the employees’ responsibility. It is unwise to blur the line. But employers can still encourage employees and here are some suggestions:
- Promote bike to work week
- Set an example – Cameron and Johnson have done so, legitimising the practice
- Advise employees of the Bike2work scheme – they can save up to 42% of the cost of a new bike
- Alert employees to cycling routes – in Lancaster, for example, there are over 50 miles of off-road cycle routes and most are suitable for commuting
- Provide secure storage for bikes, or at least cycle hoops and preferably ones undercover
- Shower facilities are great but you could start with somewhere for cyclists to change and store their work attire
- If you provide gym membership consider some equivalent subsidy for cycling. Employees might prefer to exercise while commuting rather than take time out for the gym.