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Cost-Effective Corporate Sustainability

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Why is corporate sustainability important?

Corporate sustainability, also known as corporate social responsibility, has emerged as a hot topic in the business world. The days of companies doing whatever it took to beef up their bottom lines and line their shareholders pockets’ are waning away, and new attitudes are rising in their place.

Today, companies are more aware than ever of the community impacts of their activities. Consumers are also putting much more thought into where they choose to do business. Social responsibility is also impacting hiring trends, with a growing number of studies showing that employees are more likely to make deeper personal investments in enterprises that share their values.

Another way to look at corporate sustainability is to consider financial profits as just one part of a bigger picture. The triple bottom line model, which is being adopted by companies of all sizes, looks beyond the bucks to include the environmental and social impacts of their commercial activities. A new trend is emerging, in which businesses that strive for high levels of social responsibility experience a trickle-down effect that translates into boosted revenues and profits.

How can companies achieve higher levels of corporate sustainability?

Corporate sustainability is a complex topic, and there’s no single path to achieving higher levels of social and environmental responsibility. Specific strategies depend on the industry in which the enterprise participates. However, there are several elements that are common to most initiatives:

  • Reducing waste and energy consumption. These are simple, straightforward values that a large majority of individual citizens have already adopted in their everyday lives. There’s no reason for businesses not to follow suit. For example, waste-reduction programs can often result in cost savings through increased efficiency.
  • Being more transparent and responsive. Social media has had a major impact on customer relationship management, creating never-before-seen service models that place a premium on transparency and responsiveness, especially with regard to community-oriented concerns. Good relationships and a strong sense of connection lead to more sales.
  • Active citizenship in the community. Businesses that act with a sense of responsibility towards the community in which they’re located tend to be viewed in a more positive light. This is especially important for small and independently owned businesses, which have more flexibility and agility than larger enterprises. Being visibly involved as a good community citizen is a powerful way to build positive reputation and referrals.
  • Creating commuter management programs. Actively working to reduce pollution and traffic congestion projects positive values, both internally and externally. Commuter management programs also help build a happier, healthier workforce and attract employees who want to be part of an organization with a strong community focus. Not only that, but effective commuter management can also lead to lower parking-related facilities costs, a real win-win!

Commuter management can improve corporate sustainability by reducing overall emissions, as explained in this video on green business from CommuteCon 2017.

The RideAmigos platform is an ideal tool for businesses that want to put the power of smarter commuting in the hands of their employees. Get started with RideAmigos today!

How to Encourage Employees to Carpool

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Businesses can encourage employee carpooling by using proven strategies to reduce the use of single-occupancy vehicles.

Companies looking to encourage employee carpooling can draw on numerous strategies that many businesses have already used to great effect. All successful employee carpooling programs have one element in common: they make ridesharing as easy and convenient as possible, positioning it as a viable alternative to commuting in a single-occupancy vehicle.

Here are three ways businesses can encourage employee carpooling by making ridesharing more accessible:

  • Help match commuters. It is common, especially in larger companies, for otherwise willing rideshare partners living in the same area to be unaware of available opportunities. Programs that actively aim to match prospective rideshare participants together stand a much better chance of success.
  • Offer parking benefits to rideshare drivers. Parking-based strategies can take several forms, including offering preferred parking spots or discounted parking rates to rideshare drivers. Parking cash-out programs also provide a meaningful financial incentive for commuters to use alternative transportation modes.
  • Introduce incentives and an element of friendly competition. Make ridesharing a game, and offer prizes to the teams that log the most commutes or the greatest number of rideshare miles traveled.

Commuter matching also helps employees forge friendships and valuable networking relationships. This, in turn, delivers intangible business benefits stemming from a more collegial and cooperative environment.

With parking benefits, it’s important to remember that giving preferred spots to vehicles used in carpool programs doubles as a form of free promotion. Other employees will see these vehicles prominently positioned in parking lots, understand the rideshare benefit, and become aware of the company’s carpooling program if they are not already. They’re also more likely to take part themselves!

As for carpool challenges and competitions: these can be fun, but their results don’t often make a long-term impact. Many participants simply go back to solo driving once the competition ends. You can help change this by supplementing challenge-based competitions with a commuter store. This strategy lets you encourage employees to carpool by offering points every time they log a rideshare commute. They can then redeem those points for enticing prizes, which is a great incentive and proven driver of continued behavior change.

Highlight end-user benefits to encourage employees to carpool and increase program participation.

It also helps to actively promote the many individual benefits employees can enjoy by taking part in carpooling programs:

  • Carpooling helps reduce stress, improve productivity, and increase overall happiness
  • Employees who participate in rideshare programs save money in fuel costs while reducing everyday wear-and-tear on their personal vehicles
  • Rideshare programs create a stronger sense of community and helps employees foster personal connections they might not otherwise have made

Here, the key is to remember a universal truth: most people want to do things that help the greater good, but they’re also interested in helping themselves. Thus, it’s a good idea to reinforce the ways in which individuals stand to benefit from your company’s rideshare policies.

Encourage employees to carpool and give your business a competitive advantage at the same time

Businesses that offer employee carpooling programs also project positive community values, helping attract and retain better talent. This is especially true for the millennial generation, which is now entering the workforce in large numbers and driving change in the way companies think about their commuter policies.

Market research shows that millennials look beyond compensation when weighing job offers. In addition to salary and benefits, they also consider the company’s culture and tend to favor employers whose values reflect their own. Thus, implementing a forward-thinking and easily accessible set of commuter programs can be an effective way to entice prospective employees to accept a position.

Survey data from 2018 also found that 23% of people have quit a job because of an unfavorable commute. Having an effective rideshare program to encourage employees to carpool makes it more likely that your business will retain the talent it attracts. It also helps you sell the idea that your company believes in a positive work-life balance, which is another key value shared by large numbers of younger workforce members.

RideAmigos helps encourage employees to carpool with user-friendly tools that drive behavior change

With rideshare matching, trip planners, interactive dashboards, and journey logging features, the RideAmigos software platform is an ideal tool for creating and managing company-wide carpooling networks. Administrators can also take advantage of RideAmigos’ many gamification and incentive features to boost participation rates by creating friendly competitions among commuters.

RideAmigos is one of the world’s most trusted names in transportation demand management software, and we’ve already helped a long list of businesses implement successful ridesharing and carpooling programs. If you’d like to become another of our many success stories, get started now.

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Ridesharing for Enterprises

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A comprehensive introduction to the concept and benefits of enterprise ridesharing, including practical tips on implementing and managing carpool programs.

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Corporate Ridesharing

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RideAmigos is shaping the future of corporate ridesharing.

The corporate ridesharing revolution is making major inroads all over the world, and it’s changing the way businesses and commuters think about transportation. A growing number of companies are making ridesharing an official part of their commuting policies, which has created an increased need for the kind of transportation demand management tools delivered by the RideAmigos platform.

Corporate-sponsored ridesharing programs can take many forms, but those that intelligently match employees with one another tend to have the best results when it comes to team-building and collegiality. RideAmigos offers an enterprise rideshare platform tailor-made for corporate ridesharing programs, with software features like:

  • Advanced rideshare matching algorithms that connect users and locate convenient infrastructure options such as park-and-ride hubs
  • Smart commute planning features that make it easy to find the fastest, most efficient opportunities to pick up carpool partners on the way to and from work
  • Tracking features that are ideal for gamification applications, incentive programs, and other types of benefits
  • Instant communication tools that make it a breeze for drivers and passengers to keep in touch

RideAmigos was designed with the needs of businesses of all sizes in mind, and we’re regularly adding new features to make your corporate ridesharing experience more convenient, more accessible, and more effective.

Corporate ridesharing programs deliver a long list of benefits to both commuters and businesses.

One of the key reasons corporate ridesharing is catching on with such fervor is that it delivers impressive benefits to both commuters and businesses. Commuters enjoy:

  • Reduced stress, thanks to easier morning and evening commutes
  • Stronger bonds and networking opportunities with colleagues and coworkers
  • Cost savings through reductions in fuel costs and personal vehicle usage

Businesses that implement corporate ridesharing programs benefit through:

  • Greater appeal when competing for top talent
  • Decreased employee turnover
  • Improved employee productivity and well-being
  • Reduced facilities and parking costs
  • Projecting positive values, both internally and in the larger community

Corporate ridesharing programs also increase resilience and attendance at work, as they help commuters emerge from dependence on their personal vehicles. Businesses can reduce the number of days missed due to issues like inclement weather, transit strikes, and mechanical failures, potentially saving tens of thousands of dollars per year in lost productivity.

If your organization is ready to take the next steps toward implementing a corporate rideshare program, get started with RideAmigos today.

Commuter Management Platform

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Implement a commuter management platform to help build a happier, more productive workforce

Businesses are becoming acutely aware of the negative effects of single-occupancy vehicle commuting. Congested roads damage more than just the environment; they contribute to increased stress and decreased employee productivity.

Employees who routinely make long, arduous daily commutes in their personal vehicles are also more likely to experience job dissatisfaction. This can, in turn, fuel increased employee turnover rates, which can really eat into a company’s bottom line.

Commuter management platforms offer a dynamic, technology-driven solution to enterprises that are looking to help employees find better ways of getting to and from work. Simply put, these platforms provide businesses with the technological tools they need to create, promote, and manage programs designed to get commuters out of single-occupancy vehicles and into smarter alternatives. The end result is a happier, less stressed, and more productive group of employees.

Commuter management platforms generate both immediate and long-term benefits

Commuter management platforms like RideAmigos guide commuters to the many different available transportation alternatives. They can be used to connect employees who live in close proximity to one another, enabling coworkers to share driving duties as part of a corporate carpool. Beyond reducing wear and tear on individually owned vehicles and helping carpoolers reduce their driving expenses, rideshare programs are a great way to support team-building and community development initiatives.

A growing number of companies are also embracing vanpools, which are essentially privately operated shuttle services that link places of employment with local transit hubs. With the right tools, it’s easy to create and manage vanpools, all while promoting the service to employees and increasing participation rates.

Public transit is also supported. End users can instantly access multimodal route planners and log their trips so they can easily be retrieved and repeated. Reporting and data analysis tools make it a breeze for administrators to keep track of perks like transit pass reimbursements and transit token distribution. You can even use commuter management platforms to build a bikepool group, allowing employees to ride to work together.

These features combine to create an outstanding value proposition for businesses. Key advantages include:

  • Happier, more satisfied employees
  • Reduced stress and increased productivity
  • Reduced demand for parking
  • Enhanced sense of community and collegiality
  • Lower employee turnover rates and increased job satisfaction levels
  • Decreased environmental impact and increased sustainability
  • Support for branding and business identity initiatives

To learn more about how the RideAmigos commuter management platform can benefit your business, get started with RideAmigos today!