It’s especially pertinent this year with the Olympics and Paralympics just around the corner: working from home is one of the suggestions for working around the Games over the summer. Many organisations, especially those located near the venues, already realise the benefits and have in place plans to enable staff to work smarter during the summer, and allow their business to continue uninterrupted.

This could involve letting staff be more flexible about where and when they work, letting them work from different locations as well as from home, to travel at different times of the day, and not to have to travel into a central office location during the Games. Work should get done more efficiently as a result, and without having to endure the stress of travelling in the crowds.

The Olympic Games will be the world’s largest sporting event. With visitors buying nine million tickets, in addition to athletes, country entourages, media, vendors and organisers, there will be a significant impact upon the transport infrastructure. Transport for London (TfL) is expecting 3.3 million additional journeys on the games’ biggest days, which will require a commensurate 30% decrease in commuter numbers in order to keep the system from experiencing severe disruption. They suggest that this is the minimum reduction in users needed to keep London moving during the Olympic Games, and are looking to city businesses to play a part in the solution by asking them to examine alternatives to their staff travelling into the city, keeping as many of the city’s commuters off London transport as possible.

Even without the Olympics, technological advances have enabled working practices to change. New business management approaches allow a more flexible workforce which is helping reduce cost bases. More importantly, flexible approaches to work allow organisations to adapt more easily not only to logistical disruption but also to economic cycles, enabling them to better manage their way through difficult times,  reducing the need for redundancy and downsizing.

It’s becoming more widely accepted in business that besides enhancing work-life balance for workers (with the added health benefits), working from home can significantly improve productivity, helping organisations to reduce costs at the same time as improving efficiency. Adopting smarter working practices is a win-win situation. We no longer need to work nine to five, five days a week to be productive.  Research has shown that workers can be far more productive when they work flexibly and work from home, on patterns that suit their home life better too.

Work Wise UK believes the widespread introduction of smarter working practices like the greater adoption of remote working is going to significantly reduce the need to travel to work, making a huge difference to the levels of carbon dioxide emissions from cars and other means of transport. Enabling more home working and introducing smarter working practices would especially reduce peak time congestion and overcrowding.

It wouldn’t take much here to see a real impact, even if staff worked only an average of one day every two weeks at home, this would result in 10% fewer people commuting and travelling. Think of the impact that would have on our roads, trains and buses.

The RAC Foundation, a supporting partner of Work Wise UK, calculates that 25 million people in the UK commute to and from a fixed place of work, of which 18 million people go by car. The influential Eddington Report predicted that if recent trends continue, by 2025, congestion will waste around £22 billion worth of time in England alone.

The age of working 9 to 5, five days a week, from a central location, is for many, fast coming to an end. This rigid work structure, which is largely dictated by culture and nothing else, is wasteful in terms of time and resources, damaging to the environment, and harmful in that it impacts upon workers’ stress levels and their health.

So, as I work from home today, I’m calling upon the UK ‘s employers to embrace new smarter working practices for their staff by supporting National Work from Home Day.

I’m making this prediction during Commute Smart Week, which is run by my organisation Work Wise UK. Now in its fourth year, the week  highlights a number of ways of avoiding the misery of traveling to and from work in the dark, and the depression and despondency that many experience as a result, by working and commuting ‘smarter’.

Thousands of employers are already seeing the benefits to themselves and their staff by implementing a smarter working policy. Policies such as staggering work journeys, home working, and encouraging cycling and walking, are enabling staff to get to work in a better way and in the process saving time and money whilst improving health and wellbeing.

Now, with businesses looking to make the most of their resources in the difficult economic climate, being green and commuting smart have never made more commercial sense. The CBI estimates that road congestion alone costs the UK economy some £20 billion per year. Even a limited take-up of smarter working could save £1.9 billion per year within five years.

Commuting for long periods of time has become a part of the UK’s working culture. The excessive time spent commuting is seriously affecting our work-life balance. Not only is the amount of time spent actually commuting an issue in itself, but the 9 to 5 culture with its peak travel times generates congestion on the rail, underground and road networks and as a consequence increase stress for commuters.

The knock-on effect of reducing overall traffic congestion and public transport overcrowding by extending the rush hour and reducing peak demand through smarter commuting will make the daily commute more bearable for those workers that have no choice when and how to travel.

In these cost conscious times, employees and employers are looking at the cost of travel and realising the absurd waste of time and resources, especially of one person commuting by car. Smarter commuting, making more use of walking, cycling and car sharing, combined with reducing the overall number or journeys through more remote working and more flexible working, leads to better productivity and cuts business costs. There are not only direct savings, such as mileage allowances, but also hidden costs such as parking provisions, staff retention and employee health issues that can be addressed through travel planning.

Work Wise UK has produced some useful guidance for employers and employees on commuting smarter this winter, which you can find at the Work Wise UK site. So, my advice for the months ahead is, why travel in the dark – when you can commute smart?