Almost half of UK employers said that commuting problems caused undue stress for their employees, and 41% said transport issues were responsible for making staff late on a regular basis, according to a survey by the CBI.
More than one-third of the 500 company bosses and 531 employees questioned said that travel difficulties also had a negative effect on recruitment and retention.
Despite the fact that 57% of employers said they had addressed travel problems by allowing more flexible working arrangements and 21% had developed travel plans to reduce staff reliance on cars, staff believed their organisations were unlikely to introduce initiatives to cut congestion or improve their journeys into work.
Among the employers surveyed, 11% said they had been forced to relocate within the UK due to transport problems and 15% said that transport issues had affected their access to labour markets.
Many businesses also said that transport issues had damaged the company’s growth, profitability and reputation, often for employee-related reasons, such as staff arriving late and being stressed while at work as a result.
Options such as homeworking and video-conferencing would enable staff to travel less in the future for 29% of employers, but 68% expected the use of transport to increase. And 93% do not believe that new technology and working practices will solve the problem.
Among employees, 86% said that new technologies and changing work patterns were not the answer to addressing the country’s transportation difficulties, but 22% said they would like to work from home full-time and 51% said they would like to do so occasionally.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
