Employers, should you care how your employees get to work?

Most certainly! As many Washington State employers can tell you, providing commuting choices and benefits to their employees improves their bottom line –while reducing traffic congestion and cleaning up the air for all of us. Here’s how businesses like yours benefit by offering transportation programs.

Attracting & keeping the best employees

Trip reduction programs are often viewed by employees as a benefit and organizations can use them as a recruiting and retention tool. Such programs give you a low-cost method of reducing turnover, improving employee retention, and improving productivity by reducing the time invested training new employees.

Increasing productivity

Employees who are given flexibility in their schedules feel better about their jobs which increases productivity. Likewise, people are more likely to arrive at work on time if they catch a bus, carpool, or vanpool, therefore, reducing tardiness and absenteeism.

Increasing employee satisfaction

Transportation programs increase employee satisfaction in a variety of ways. Having an alternative work schedule gives an employee a guilt-free opportunity to make doctor appointments or attend a child’s sports activity. In addition, employees who share the ride to work often point out that camaraderie is an important benefit.

Freeing up parking

Fewer employee cars in your parking lot can free up spaces for customers, visitors and vendors, avoiding having to lease, buy or build more stalls.

Expanding your labor pool

Not all workers can drive, have access to a car, or can work conventional 8am-5pm hours. Flexible schedules and support for ridesharing allow more people to apply for a job and increases the labor pool from which to draw qualified candidates. Recruitment costs go down too when jobs are filled more quickly.

Expanding your customer base

Extended business hours when you offer such benefits as flextime, compressed work schedules, and telework improve the ability to serve customers in different time zones or ones with time sensitive needs.

Increasing your work space

When employees can telework or work a compressed work week, work space can be shared and space needs reduced. 

Moving people and freight

Congestion impacts everyone’s ability to deliver goods and services which cost your business valuable time and money. With fewer cars on the road you save money by helping to avoid huge freight costs and reducing the time it takes to make business-related trips.

Savings on taxes

Federal tax law allows tax breaks for transit and vanpool commuting costs up to $110 per month per employee. As an employer you can deduct the cost of providing such benefits and avoid payroll taxes as well. Employees save too when they pay their own commuting costs with pre-tax dollars.

Emergency management

In an emergency (severe weather, earthquake, strike, etc) established ridesharing and work options programs can keep a business operating.

Being a good neighbor

The press often highlights employers that are progressive where transportation is a hot issue and well supported. In addition local awards programs often recognize employers with innovative transportation programs. Your community appreciates you too when you reduce employee spillover parking in neighborhoods surrounding your worksite.