Homeworking at City Taxis

5th August 2016

Waiting for the bus in the rain or squeezed onto a packed commuter train for hours, how many of us have dreamt of earning a living from home where that daily journey's measured in metres, not minutes? Well a Sheffield company is pioneering a flexible working environment where everyone wins.

14% of UK workers and 11% of Yorkshire and Humber workers do so from home - but for customers calling Sheffield's City Taxis, an astonishing 60% of those calls will be taken by employees working from the comfort of their own homes. "Before City merged with Mercury in June last year, only about 5 staff were home workers. In preparation for the merger of Sheffield's two largest taxi companies, about the same number again became home workers to create space for former Mercury staff. "Now 51 are homeworkers which is almost 60% of our 87 Call centre staff who work from home, says the man in charge of making homeworking happen, HR Training Coordinator and former City student homeworker, Liam Brewster. Why home working is offering a flexible life for City Taxis team Liam Brewster, now 24, worked for the newly-merged taxi firm two days a week throughout university remotely from the University of Hull's campus in Scarborough. Liam is keen to help others enjoy the flexible working life he has had and the opportunities a large employer like City Taxis can bring: -I started at City as a call centre adviser and was delighted when they trusted me to be a 'homeworker' for two years when I went away to University 100 miles away from Sheffield. I was given a phone and a laptop by the company and I'd do 12-16 hours a week at about £7.50 per hour, the same as the call centre staff with no travel expenses. My mum and girlfriend work here too as telephonists. In fact, I met my girlfriend when I trained her! She was introduced to the company by her mum who works here too! City's managing director Arnie Singh says: -Originally, home working was a privilege for more senior members of staff who had normally been here for a few years, once they had shown their worth, got plenty of experience and had demonstrated they could handle the role well. With the additional staff from Mercury Taxis after our merger last June, the call centre became much busier and we had the capacity to introduce more flexible home working which several ex Mercury staff took the opportunity to do. Home-working has proven to be a great solution, offering flexibility for both staff and employer. Arnie, a Masters graduate from the University of Sheffield who originally worked as a music teacher before joining City Taxis added, -The technology is a big part of our success. We have been working with a local technology partner Solution Telecom to pioneer a home worker-friendly telephony product that has now been adopted by companies in the UK and across the globe, many based in the United States- but we are very proud to say the technology was born & made in Sheffield. We hope to continue to attract staff who would appreciate this kind of flexible working environment to join our committed team. Homeworking is an opportunity to reach the untapped potential of unemployed people with disabilities for example, who may find working in a normal office environment challenging. City's long term vision is to create opportunities for flexible working patterns and we feel people who suffer from mobility issues could be perfect for a Call Centre Advisor role. We have found our increasing numbers of homeworkers appreciate the flexibility and are valuable, loyal and reliable members of staff. The evidence is clear- seven out of our top ten most productive staff last year were homeworkers and our most productive employee was a homeworker who booked almost 60,000 jobs.