When Netami Stuart accepted a job last March as a designer for PMA Landscape Architects Ltd. in Toronto, the deal clincher wasn't the salary, benefits package or vacation days.
Rather, it was the company's subscription to a car-sharing program that gives members -- and their employees -- access to a fleet of rental vehicles around the city.
Instead of driving to work every day and using her car to go to clients, Ms. Stuart figured she could cycle to her employer's downtown office and then jump into a rental car when needed. And she finally could get rid of her own car -- a hand-me-down costing about $5,000 a year in fuel and maintenance.
"When I was doing the [job] interview, I was happier to take a far more flexible approach in my salary negotiations because I would have 5,000 extra dollars in my pocket from not having to own and drive a car," says Ms. Stuart, an avid cyclist.
Employers take note: Human resources and commuter options experts say that a combination of factors -- including gas prices that have topped a dollar a litre, greater demand for work-life balance and growing concern for the environment -- is making employees clamour for less costly, more convenient and Earth-friendlier ways of getting to work.
Nearly 85 per cent of respondents to a recent on-line survey by Monster Worldwide Inc. said that eye-popping prices at the gas pumps have affected their willingness to commute to work. And 44 per cent of respondents to a 2003 survey by Ottawa-based think tank Canadian Policy Research Networks said the length of their commute influenced their decision on where they currently worked. Nearly 90 per cent said commute times would influence future job choices.
In the heated competition for talent, experts say more companies are distinguishing themselves as "employers of choice" by offering ways to ease the commute for their employees.
They're doing this through a variety of approaches, including teleworking, transit subsidies, carpooling, car-share programs and "distributed working," which lets employees work in an office closer to home.
"There's a war on talent out there," says Dave Mowat, chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, which offers employees the works when it comes to commuting options. "As employers, we need to take advantage of everything we've got to attract and retain talent."
Saleem Sattar, environmental protection manager at Transport Canada, says he's seeing more employers that want to help reduce employees' commuting times and costs. In 2004, Transport Canada rolled out "commuter options" seminars that teach companies how to set up programs. So far, Mr. Sattar says, more than 80 companies have attended.
Bob Fortier, president of InnoVisions Canada, an Ottawa-based consulting firm that helps companies set up telework and flex-work programs, says he has seen demand for his company's services triple in the past two years. He attributes this spike largely to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which he says made many companies realize telecommuting can minimize business interruptions during an emergency.
But most employers have implemented telework programs because workers demand flexibility, adds Mr. Fortier, president of the Canadian Telework Association.
To respond to this need for flexibility, some companies have begun to offer distributed work spaces -- also referred to as flex spaces --- for employees who work at home or in the field.
At BCE Inc., for instance, remote employees can log on to a company website and reserve a desk or meeting room at a BCE office closest to them, says Marc Duchesne, director of corporate responsibility and environment.
There are other ways companies can give employees a hand with the work commute, says Rita Koutsodimos, a project co-ordinator for Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST), a Vancouver-based non-profit organization that promotes environmentally friendly transportation.
Carpooling is one such way, and, by all accounts, it is catching on.
