ways2work > How to do it > Creating your ways2work plan > REVIEW and update your initiative

REVIEW and update your initiative

Monitor and evaluate outcomes and achievements

Measuring, analysing and communicating the achievements and outcomes of your programme - using KPIs which are most relevant to your objectives and the interventions that you implement - will be particularly vital in documenting the return on investment in your programme and ensuring that your management and stakeholders continue to recognise its value.

Among Steering Group members, KPIs were highly diverse and included:

  • Employee wellness
  • Improved productivity
  • Reduced absence
  • Employee satisfaction
  • Qualitative changes in travel behaviours
  • Number of staff changing their travel habits through choice
  • Overall traffic levels to site
  • Car park occupancy levels
  • Levels of Single Occupancy Vehicle use in commuting and business travel
  • Number of registered car sharers
  • Number of cycle scheme participants
  • Number of shuttle bus passengers
  • Performance against WWF 1 in 5 Challenge targets
  • Percentage shift in modes of travel
  • CO2 footprint by site
  • Number of/carbon emissions from flights made for business travel;

Data can be recorded directly (e.g. through a census of vehicles) or indirectly (e.g. through staff surveys or focus groups).

"Our focus on green travel via the introduction of well-managed parking encouraged our people to use public transport to travel to work. Flexible working to reduce the home to work commuting impact has seen a 41% reduction in our staff commuting impact across our head office."

Unilever - Business in the Community Company of the Year 2010

Update your initiative based on staff feedback and lessons learned

To keep your sustainable and reduced travel initiatives fresh and relevant, update its contents in light of feedback from employees and the changing needs of the workforce and the business. Repeat a needs analysis on an annual basis, measure the outcomes of your interventions and adjust these accordingly.

Feedback can be provided via a mix of staff surveys, focus groups, face-to-face meetings, email messages and intranet sites.

For Steering Group members, lessons learned from implementing sustainable travel initiatives included the following:

  • Engage senior management
    HR, finance, facilities and other key stakeholder groups
  • Use ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ incentives
    the best way of overcoming challenges to changing working practices and travel behaviour is to incentivise employees. They have to feel they are getting something back
  • Demonstrate the business case
    including tangible and intangible benefits
  • Take the time to find out the best options
    (best practice benchmarks, focus groups, feedback, innovations); develop the optimum solution (meets most objectives, simple, popular) and plan all aspects of implementation with care (timing, location, activities, etc)
  • Offering free travel is not sufficient
    to make people take public transport; there are deeper challenges in promoting wide-scale behaviour change
  • Reducing work-related travel is a change management programme
    Get employees involved in finding the answers to the challenges you face; be creative in your options and solutions
  • Consider long-term consequences
    of implementing expensive or labour-intensive options – it is always more difficult to withdraw support than not to offer it at all
  • Hold a very hard line
    When asked to provide additional / amend car parking arrangements, always say no! Explain that alternative and reduced travel is the only option for the business

“If we had it to do over again. . . “

When asked what they would do differently in future in light of their experiences, Steering Group members said:

  • “Be more bold and ambitious up front, though it is also helpful to pace your incentives to maintain that momentum and continually nudge people.”
  • “Ensure a level tension is maintained between parking provision and green travel to increase positive action.”
  • “Put greater emphasis on employees’ welfare (linked to business results to get very senior buy in).”
  • “Encourage more car sharing earlier and work with staff earlier.”
  • “The health aspect could have been considered early on.”

Maintain your momentum

Steering Group companies have maintained the momentum of reduced and sustainable travel initiatives after their initial launch through:

  • Understanding of how to change habits in environmentally positive ways and reinforce good habits already taking place
  • Sustained campaigning with clear communication, informing staff about new initiatives and providing feedback on the results
  • Continual promotion of different sustainable modes of travel, such as new facilities for cyclists and new spaces for car sharers
  • Support of key national campaigns on an annual basis (walking, cycling, ‘smart’ weeks) as well as other bespoke initiatives to target key demographics or travel modes
  • Provision of a full-time travel plan manager to support programmes
  • Promote awareness with an ongoing strategy of development supported by specific campaigns
  • A scheduled plan of events each year
  • Regular communication with, and incentivisation of, staff
  • Provision of opportunities for staff to feed back on initiatives
  • Integration of sustainable travel and reduced travel performance with CSR and business target


Essential Guide to Travel Planning
by NBTN and the DfT