Guidance

Smarter Working

Information on how the Civil Service-wide Smarter Working Programme is supporting departments to develop modern ways of working for a smarter future.

Documents

Smarter Working - increased interest and pace

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Smarter Working - learning lessons from COVID-19

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Civil Service World Smarter Working awards article

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Details

Smarter working as a concept has a rich history within the Civil Service. From the launch of The Way We Work (TW3) initiative in response to Civil Service Reform in 2012, through to the present day where the Smarter Working Programme is owned by the Government Property Agency (GPA), and accountable through the 2018 Government Estate Strategy.

What is smarter working?

Smarter working empowers us all to make the right decisions about where, when and how we work; optimising the use of workplaces and technology, and realising savings for the taxpayer. It improves productivity through a focus on outputs and enables a better work life balance for all.

How is smarter working being implemented across the Civil Service?

The Government Estate Strategy agreed a commitment with all departments and their executive agencies to implement smarter working by the end of 2022. The Smarter Working Programme established within GPA supports departments (as well as wider government organisations) in implementing smarter working.

Why is smarter working being implemented across the Civil Service?

To support and enable other government programmes and initiatives such as Places for Growth and Beyond Whitehall strategies. Ultimately we want to achieve our goal of making the Civil Service a great place to work that attracts and retains great talent within government.

Like many organisations doing similar work in this space, we get the best results from sharing and learning from others so we’ve published material that we hope is useful in understanding our Smarter Working Programme. If you’d like to know more or have any questions please get in touch with us via: [email protected]

Government Estate Strategy [Smart working: the quiet revolution](https://civilservice.blog.gov.uk/2016/01/21/smart-working-the-quiet-revolution/] Civil Service SW blog 2019 Smarter Working Awards Brilliant Civil Service Smarter Working animation

People, workspace, technology.
Smarter Working rich pic

Updates to this page

Published 1 January 2004
Last updated 17 November 2020 + show all updates
  1. Updated the sections and content on the page with the most current information.

  2. Content updated.

  3. First published.

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