Greater Manchester, Working Differently

Why work differently?

Greater Manchester is growing rapidly and every year, hundreds of new businesses and tens of thousands more people choose to live and work here. Without question, we're now an increasingly successful city region competing on a global stage.

But this growth brings with it new challenges.

Increased demand on our roads and public transport has resulted in an increase in congestion and poor air quality. Left untouched, and this could deter investment, affect productivity and limit our ability to attract talent.

And now, of course, Covid-19 has had a huge role in how employees evaluate what work can or should look like.  It's likely that we are entering a new kind of employment market.   

As part of The Mayor's #buildbackbetter campaign we are working to make sure that we don't return to the levels of traffic pre-covid.  Getting your business Working Differently can play a part in this.

Working Differently, in some way at least, is here to stay.

Benefits to the transport network

It’s estimated that congestion costs the local economy around £1.3 billion each year in lost time and productivity, not to mention that the air pollution that it creates contributes to the equivalent of 1,200 deaths a year in Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester has a long-term transport strategy to deliver world class connectivity for our city region. However, for this to become a reality, it needs the right powers and funding, but even then, this transformational change won’t take place overnight. In the meantime, we need to make the most of our existing infrastructure and consider what changes we can all make to reduce our impact on congestion and continue to support our growing economy.

Business has a critical leadership role to play in supporting us all to work differently, to reduce the number of trips taking place at peak times, freeing up capacity for those sectors – like retail, service and manufacturing – which often have fixed hours of operation. Small changes can make a huge difference.

Our research shows that while there is already a significant amount of dynamic working taking place in Greater Manchester, there is still a desire for it to be introduced, or developed further, across many more employers.

We recognise that every business is different and the support you’ll find on these pages will hopefully help you to work differently – whether you’re a small business introducing it from scratch or a large employer extending the range of options already available.

If you’re an organisation or an employer that’s interested in becoming a partner or a potential case study please contact us directly at workingdifferently@tfgm.com.