Cyclescheme and cycling facilities can transform your workplace – but only if your employees are actively encouraged to use them.
Getting staff to cycle to work has real benefits for any business. There are three key things you can do to boost cycling levels. First, register with Cyclescheme. Second, provide an environment where cyclists are welcome. The third thing is easy to overlook: you need to promote these benefits to your staff.
Staff inductions
Make new employees aware of Cyclescheme and of your cycling facilities on their first day. Flag these benefits as part of the staff induction. If you’re doing a PowerPoint presentation, include a slide that briefly explains how Cyclescheme works. When you do the workplace tour, point out the showers, lockers, and cycle parking.
Existing staff
Don’t target only new staff, especially if you’ve recently upped your cycle-friendly-employer game. Existing staff need reminding. Whether you do that with noticeboards, internal emails, the office intranet, or a combination of all three, it’s important to explain why it’s worth getting on a bike. Tell them how much money they could save. Point out the health benefits of cycling to work. Use events like Bike Week and Cycle to Work Day to draw attention to cycle commuting at your workplace.
Resources
Non-cyclists genuinely don’t know what they’re missing. If they can’t easily find out, they may never get started. Provide information – via the intranet, noticeboards, and a well-briefed human resources department – on:
- How and when staff can sign up to Cyclescheme.
- What the procedures are, if any, for utilising workplace cycling parking, lockers, showers, etc.
- Recommended local cycle retailers.
- Where, or from whom, employees can get advice on equipment.
- Good and bad cycling routes approaching the workplace. This could involve displaying a commercial cycling map or simply printing out an open-source map and using green and red highlighter pens to indicate good and bad routes.
If your workplace has, or can encourage the creation of, a Bicycle User Group, this can be a fantastic forum for sharing information and advice. Some or all of the above tasks can be delegated to the BUG.
Create a Travel Plan
A Travel Plan is a way to reduce car travel by promoting alternative forms of transport, including cycling. It’s a way for a business to become greener and save money. The Depart for Transport has a good guide. A Travel Plan is wider than just cycling, but by creating one you’ll end up addressing many of the above points, and you and your employees will get a clearer picture of the role cycling fulfils in solving transport issues.
Ready to add Cyclescheme as an employee benefit?
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