"Working Smarter Will Aid Economic Recovery," Says Independent Travel Company

BOLTON, England, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

An independent travel company is calling for more UK businesses to adopt smarter working practices to secure their trading futures, aid economic recovery and boost staff wellbeing.

Leading travel company Travel Counsellors is supporting 'National Work from Home Day', which will be held on Friday 18 May and is part of national Work Wise Week (beginning 13 May). Now in its seventh year, the initiative aims to raise awareness of the benefits to employers of flexible, remote and mobile working, as well as working from home.

Managing Director Steve Byrne comments; "The business environment is changing and with it the nature of how businesses operate is changing too. Adopting a flexible working structure for staff leads to greater productivity and increased staff wellbeing. It also means that our agents can be available at a time to suit their customers outside of normal working hours, thus providing a more personal travel service to their clients. In fact, one third of Travel Counsellors' business is done after 5pm in the evening, indicating that customers want to talk travel at a time convenient to them."

According to a recent analysis of official statistics, employees spend nearly 200 hours a year travelling to and from work, adding up to approximately five weeks extra work per year. With the longest commute time of nearly 40 minutes per journey, the TUC is advising Londoners during this year's Olympics to take the opportunity to embrace smarter practices, such as working from home or staggered start and finish times.

Launched in 1994, Travel Counsellors was one of the first companies in the UK to enable professional travel agents to run their own travel businesses from home, and now has over 730 home-based leisure and corporate travel professionals located throughout the UK, with a further 400 plus overseas. Over 75% of Travel Counsellors' agents are women, and 35% of those have children aged under five. With busy parents making up over three quarters of the company's staff, the company says that more professionals should seize the opportunity to work from home, pointing out that 81% of its agents say their work/life balance has improved since joining the company.

Byrne says; "Travel Counsellors supports the argument for smarter working practices and in particular National Work from Home Day, which is why we introduced an opportunity for people from outside of the travel industry to join the company through a franchise scheme called The Travel Academy, enabling more customer service professionals to reap the benefits of this level of flexible working. Each of our travel agents is empowered to manage their working life around their home life, or vice-versa."

For further information about Travel Counsellors' Travel Academy visit http://www.tctravelacademy.co.uk. For more information on Work Wise Week and National Work from Home Day visit http://www.workwiseuk.org/