A recent survey among employees in the UK showed that almost half said they would consider leaving their current role if they were forced back into the office.
The number is shocking considering it was only a few years ago when homeworking was frowned upon by many companies.
Yet Covid completely turned the world of work on its head making working from home a must for businesses to survive.
Ever since, businesses have struggled to get workers back into offices despite all the benefits to working in an office from stronger employee relationships and increased collaboration to better opportunities for career development.
Two of the biggest factors stopping employees returning to the office include the high price of childcare and travel costs, both public transport and using their own vehicles.
So, it’s no surprise during the cost-of-living crisis that employees want to keep working from home or at the very least work in the office just two or three days a week.
However, according to the Hayes survey, a whopping 61 per cent of employers are not doing anything to incentive workers to return to the office with just eight per cent of employers offering paid or subsidised travel.
Instead, the survey found that employers are offering ‘nice to have’ incentives such as social events and free snacks instead of higher pay or help with commuting or childcare.
One great way businesses can incentivise a return to the office is to offer employees free or reduced cost EV charging to save money on their commutes.
EV charging is also seen as a big bonus because charging infrastructure isn’t always evenly available across the UK which puts people off from owning EVs.
This is especially the case if employees live in flats or terraced streets without any driveways or in any area where there’s a dearth of charging facilities.
Offering EV charging to employees can help reduce so called ‘range anxiety’ where EV owners are fearful about how far they can travel without having to power up their cars.
If they know they can come to work and charge their car for their return journey, it gives them peace of mind and potentially huge savings if they swap their petrol vehicle for an EV.
The very fact that businesses provide EV charging can also nudge people to make the move to electric vehicles.
EV charging boosts your company’s reputation by showing your customers and employees that you’re serious about sustainability targets and reaching Net Zero.
In addition, using green energy (for example from solar panels) is very attractive to many employees who want to work for a forward-thinking company which cares about the future of the planet.
Providing EV charging and installing other green measures such as solar carports gives businesses a competitive advantage in attracting top talent.
EV charging can easily be supported through solar carports on workplace carparks.
By installing solar carports, a company can start producing its own energy as well as cut electricity bills and its carbon footprint and provide EV charging to employees and customers.
For example, two carports covering a total of 80 spaces (1000m² of solar panels) could potentially charge 3,500 EVs a year and save up to £42,000 in energy bills while cutting 31 tonnes of CO2 a year.
If you’d like to find out how much a solar carport can save you alongside carbon savings and EV vehicle capacity, then you can get an instant Return on Investment (ROI) figure by using our Solar Savings Calculator.
For more information about solar carports and EV charging and to speak to one of experts please contact us.