New Smarter Working option for Hampshire

As part of the collaborative Hampshire County Council and local authority led ‘Recession Response Initiative’, a network of Smarter Working Centres (SWCs) is being established across the County over the coming months. The official programme launch of the SWC initiative took place on 8th October as part of the eHampshire Conference at Winchester Guildhall with the Smarter Working Centre website launched during Smart Commute Week on 5th Nov 

A SWC might form part of an existing business centre, or be housed in a currently empty public, high street or commercial building. In more rural locations, a SWC could perhaps be within a community centre or a library. The SWC scheme will be membership based and offer drop-in low-cost, internet-connected shared work space, meeting and training rooms together with a communal area for networking, with tea and coffee facilities.

Each SWC will be internet connected and users may come from the following groups:

–        Entrepreneurs, professionals and executives (those recently unemployed or redundant,

–        Commuters and the would be or currently isolated homeworkers

–        Seasonal, project and remote (nomadic/freelancer/contract) workers 

–        Local start-up, fledgling, microbusinesses or social enterprises

–        Private and public sector organisations looking to reduce office costs and their carbon footprint 

Yes, very much so. Each Smarter Work Centre will become a local venue for agency delivered business advice and training services. These services are often be free or heavily subsidised and will be delivered by organisations like Business Link, <Business and Skills Advisors>, Job Centre Plus or Enterprise First. SWCs can also act as outreach centres for local colleges. Each centre operator will also be encouraged to establish special interest networking events and self-help groups or clubs for recently unemployed professionals or executives.

For some groups, like those unemployed who become SWC members, initial use of workspace (subject to availability) could be FREE. Otherwise workspace, meeting rooms or private offices can be booked by SWC members by the hour, half day, day, week or longer for as little as £3 per hour for workspace or £20 per day for a private PC equipped office. Both 'Pay As You Go' and prepaid (discounted) and memberships are available

A purpose designed SWC website offers a real-time availability checker, on-line booking, availability and secure payment using PAYPAL. The site was launched in November and is now fully on-stream. Register and book before the end of March and not only will you be able to claim an extra FREE hour on the day you book, but you will also be entered into a FREE prize draw for 200 FREE hours of SWC workspace usage.

Click here to visit the NEW SWC Website

To encourage establishment of a county-wide network of SWCs and to encourage early user take-up, Hampshire County Council has put aside £90k match funding to contribute to Smarter Working Centre initial set-up and first year running costs.  For early adopters, this could yield up to £9k support towards set up costs and delivery of core (preferred) SWC activities during the first year of operation.  

It can be a rural village or town where much of the working population out-commutes daily, or a high street, space near a major transport hub or commuting route, business centre or simply an unoccupied floor of an existing building. We are currently particularly keen to find suitable locations in and around New Forest, East Hampshire (Whitehill/Bordon area), Test Valley, Hart and Rushmoor areas.

You can call or email (contact information below) and we will mail you the Smarter Working Centre Network leaflet or alternatively take a look at the on-line quick guide

Finally, if you have or know of an empty or under-utilised building that might be suitable for use as a Smarter Working Centre, or would like to understand more about the programme or the criteria for becoming a Smarter Working Centre operator please contact the eHampshire Programme Office on 01962 846381 or you can email the project manager tony.corbin@hants.gov.uk