Major British Corporation wont....

cd_gbr337

sign up for a cycle to work scheme.

BT wont sign up to the scheme even though they promote "green" ideas and projects, as they feel it is too much like hard work to organise.

I work for BT and have started commuting to work using my full sus mountain bike - not really suitable so I enquired about C2W to get a new bike and got knowhere, I contacted some Intranet cycling clubs who told me they have been through this for years and BT wont give in.

I even sent an email to the director for the environment and she didnt even bother replying.

So much for corporate and social responsibility!

Rant Over!

:twisted:

Has anyone experienced anything like this before and did you manage to sway a major company to change their minds? Any ideas?

SmellTheGlove

What were given as reasons/excuses in BT's case?

I'd be interested to know so as to be armed and dangerous, ready to pre-empt any similar problems when (and that's a big when) I come to talk to our HR people about this...

cd_gbr337

they quoted:

"Statistics show that take up of this scheme is generally small that it does not justify the cost of running it" and "BT already offer other great salary sacrifice schemes".

If you can call buying more holidays, dentist cover (taxed) and health (taxed) great then im beat.

Im annoyed - got my eye on a few lovely machines that will make my commute alot easier.

spen666

cd_gbr337 wrote:

sign up for a cycle to work scheme.

BT wont sign up to the scheme even though they promote "green" ideas and projects, as they feel it is too much like hard work to organise.
...

Many Governmental organisations refuse to implement this scheme- so what chance do others have of persuading their companies to go for this

patchy

hmm. is there any way you can canvas members of staff to see how much interest there would be? say, survey 100 people?

i suppose the other option would be to go direct to the sustainabillity dept in BT Centre and see how they react...

Belv

Quote health statistics that will benefit them through less staff absence and environmental responsibility stuff, but there's nothing you can do to make them (which i've always found to make a mockery of the whole idea of the scheme, really)

georgee

Borris was throwing his weight behind this,

couple of options,

a) Name and shame website
b) Lobby a bike friendly MP (maybe that one who ran over a cyclist in his 4x4, am sure he's looking for a spot of greenwash for that and being a conservative)

squired

How about looking at the various cycling groups you mentioned on your intranet banding together to go to HR again. Offer the combined services as a group to promote the scheme and its benefits within the company. It is short notice, but you could start by doing something for National Bike week, which I believe is just around the corner.

Alternatively you could just speak to the local press as a starter to see if they fancy doing an article on it. These large companies are keen to do the big environmental PR pushes (whichever company it is that is dishing out free energy efficient lightbulbs to each of its customers being a perfect example), but not the ones they can't get huge publicity from.

Of course the advantage of the bike scheme is that it isn't just good for the environment, but it has health benefits too. Cost-wise they will probably save in days lost due to sickness (might be worth seeing if there are any studies on this that you could look out the papers on).

krushgroove

My (much smaller) company also won't do the scheme because it will take too much time for Personnel to organise, so I suppose there isn't much hope of convincing them if the gov't and BT can't be bothered...

Jamey

It never ceases to amaze me how Human Resources departments can be so poor at talking to (and dealing with) actual Humans. In my experience there is no department of a company that's less likely to respond to emails than HR.

hoathy

Jamey wrote:

It never ceases to amaze me how Human Resources departments can be so poor at talking to (and dealing with) actual Humans. In my experience there is no department of a company that's less likely to respond to emails than HR.

yes, thats definately true, they always seem to be nuce when you ring them up though, and they say "oh, yeah, i'll get that sorted for you right away", and you finish the conversation thinking: good, i'm glad thats sorted, then later you find out they haven't done anything at all, it was all a big lie....

mailmannz

Jamey wrote:

It never ceases to amaze me how Human Resources departments can be so poor at talking to (and dealing with) actual Humans. In my experience there is no department of a company that's less likely to respond to emails than HR.

You must realise that HR is not there for you...but for management. SImply to make sure processes are followed and the organisation is not exposed when things go wrong (dot the t's. cross the I's).

Then again, my work has a bike to work scheme BUT has the parking facilities from hell. Bikes go missing, staff get attacked and sweet feck all is done about it.

Mailman

Clever Pun

In my experience you need to find someone senior who likes cycling and you can get their political muscle behind you making them think it's all their idea...

Juju_uk_68

I thought that the costs of the scheme can be borne largely by the likes of Evans and Halfords, with their own impletmentations of the scheme.

I think the gig is they do the admin, as they potentially get to sell a lot fo bikes out of it, and whilst they might be discounted to you, in that you dont pay vat, they are full price bikes just less vat.

My outfit uses Halfords, who actually have a dedicated C2W department. PErhaps ring them, ask about the scheme and what effort it takes, and go to a line manager with a proposal.

hoathy

When I was selling bikes on the scheme I was told to avoid sale bikes becasue the scheme meant we weren't making as much money on them as usual...

hudsons8

I worked for Defra (Dept Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) until about a year ago and they certainly didnt have Cycle-toWork in place then and doubt they have in the mean time.

Wonder if the Greater London Authority and Mayors office are.........anyone know?

nortones2

You might like to consider flogging the health promotion aspects to HR:http://www2.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/onyourbike.htm?name=_guide&type=section

The other tactic might be to turn a refusal round: so health is not an important issue for BT?, missing a positive PR opportunity etc.

MrGrumpy

cd_gbr337 wrote:

sign up for a cycle to work scheme.

BT wont sign up to the scheme even though they promote "green" ideas and projects, as they feel it is too much like hard work to organise.

I work for BT and have started commuting to work using my full sus mountain bike - not really suitable so I enquired about C2W to get a new bike and got knowhere, I contacted some Intranet cycling clubs who told me they have been through this for years and BT wont give in.

I even sent an email to the director for the environment and she didnt even bother replying.

So much for corporate and social responsibility!

Rant Over!

:twisted:

Has anyone experienced anything like this before and did you manage to sway a major company to change their minds? Any ideas?

Well the Post Office offer it so can`t see why BT can`t do it, did take a wee while to start up but its very popular now.

Brains

My company does not have a bike to work scheme on the basis that they say they pay everyone too much anyway so you can afford to buy your own and no one would dare put a bike in the cage that cost less that £1,000.

But the company does have excelent bike facilities, a secure covered bike cage with guard and CCTV, showers, lockers, white fluffy towels, shirt service, £1 breakfast for cyclists etc.

I found the reason, the just departed CEO (annual salary £1.7m plus bonuses) rides to work every day.

It also explains why the cage can somtimes look like the shop floor of Condor cycles, with machines of every type and description with a lot of serious carbon and titanium abounding.

(We also have a car park. Space for 6 cars, in a building containing about 600 people, sounds abut the right ratio to me)

cntl

Maybe the government is also partly to blame. Maybe if they had made the CTW Scheme less cumbersome to run and gave more incentives and benefits to employers for implementing it, then there would have been less problems. IMHO, CTW Scheme is just a PR stunt, they are not serious.

cd_gbr337

I agree - if it was a scheme where you could organise it all by yourself at your LBS then it would be so much easier.

The shop sends your details onto tax office and its done from there would be an ideal.

hoathy

cntl wrote:

Maybe the government is also partly to blame. Maybe if they had made the CTW Scheme less cumbersome to run and gave more incentives and benefits to employers for implementing it, then there would have been less problems. IMHO, CTW Scheme is just a PR stunt, they are not serious.

i think you're right there, but it does seem to work quite well for some people which can only be a good thing! Some bikes probably get wasted though.