NEW WORK WISE TEAM APPOINTED TO HELP THE REGION WORK SMARTER

Sarah Stewart and Clothier Lacey & Co (CLC) are celebrating their recent appointment to the pioneering campaign which aims to promote smarter working throughout the region, Work Wise North East (WWNE).

WWNE aims to consign to history the nine-to-five, five-days a week working mentality by promoting smarter working practices, such as flexible working, mobile working, remote working and working from home. Launched in February 2007, it was the first of several regional campaigns to be set up based on the national Work Wise UK initiative.

Due to the huge potential of WWNE to transform working practices, Sarah Stewart has been appointed as project manager and CLC to provide public relations support.

Sarah Stewart is an experienced business professional operating at board level across a range of organisations. Sarah has been practising smarter working since 1994 when she started working from home as an independent management consultant advising companies on business development, brand positioning and marketing strategy.

Having worked with prestigious clients such as Newcastle Science City and Shell International,
her new role with Work Wise involves working with the WWNE partners to provide public leadership for the campaign.

Speaking about her new role, she said:

"Being part of this campaign, I hope to demonstrate to employers the many benefits of adopting smarter working practices such as reduced costs and improved staff retention and better staff morale. For employees, smarter working means a happier work life balance and greater flexibility, particularly for working mothers or those with mobility problems."

CLC has been appointed to work alongside Sarah to help publicise the campaign, to increase awareness of the benefits of smarter working.

With a great deal of relevant experience working for other private, public and third sector clients, CLC was well placed to be appointed to the campaign.

Philippa Clothier, managing director of Clothier Lacey & Co, said:

"As a company we believe in working smarter and we can't wait to get involved in the project and do our bit towards making the north east a more productive, progressive and environmentally friendly region."

Simon Roberson, chairman of Work Wise North East, said:

"Both Sarah and CLC stood out in the interviews due to their wide ranging expertise and also their beliefs in the benefits of flexible working and I look forward to working with them in our attempts to banish the traditional nine-to-five mentality.

"In the increasingly harsher economic climate, just a small change in working practices and culture can lead to increased business productivity, a happier work force and reduced overheads - something vital to all companies at the present time."

Work Wise North East has already attracted wide ranging support from leading organisations in the region. Its strategic partners include: Association of North East Councils, BT, Dickinson Dees, EEF Northern, Equality North East, Government Office North East, Nexus, North East Chamber of Commerce, One Northeast, Onyx Group, RBLI, The Workplace Travel Plan Company and TUC.

Work Wise North East is partly funded by One NorthEast.