Cycling is a healthy, cheap and an environmentally friendly way of getting around. Thus, the number of employees who cycle to work is continuously increasing. This is because more and more people are recognising the benefits of cycling for their health and the environment. Companies have also realised that by encouraging their employees to cycle, they can not only contribute to climate protection, but also promote the health and well-being of their employees.
There are various approaches to motivate more employees to cycle. One possibility is to provide bicycle parking and changing facilities at the workplace. Another possibility is the introduction of bicycle leasing programmes or the assumption of bicycle repair costs.
But how can companies ensure that their efforts to promote cycling are successful? A checklist can help to consider the most important factors and facilitate implementation.
Combining these four factors makes cycling attractive and fun, which significantly increases the likelihood of more employees taking up cycling.
More and more employers are offering their employees the option of leasing a company bicycle. This is a bicycle that is provided by the employer and can be used both professionally and privately. Company bike leasing offers many advantages for employers and employees.
With company bike leasing, employees can travel to work in an environmentally friendly and health-promoting way. At the same time, they save money because they can deduct the company bike from their taxes and no costs are incurred for petrol or public transport. By offering company bike leasing, employers can increase their attractiveness as a modern employer and position themselves as a sustainable company.
Company bike leasing can be offered in different ways. Some employers offer their employees the option of leasing the company bike through an external service provider. Other companies offer bike leasing directly, working with bike dealers or leasing companies.
In order for company bike leasing to be implemented successfully, employers should pay attention to a few points. This includes, for example, clarifying the tax and legal framework conditions. Choosing the right service provider or partner is also important to ensure a smooth implementation of the company bike leasing.
All in all, company bike leasing offers many advantages for employers and employees. Employers should therefore check whether they would like to offer company bike leasing as an additional service for their employees.
If companies create suitable infrastructure for their employees to cycle to work, they can expect more employees to use bicycles. This includes creating suitable cycling facilities on site. Of course, companies do not have to organise everything at once, but setting up a number of facilities does not have to take a lot of time. Here are some recommendations on what companies can offer cyclists:
Employees may not always want to cycle. Depending on work, private circumstances or weather conditions, they will sometimes want to make different mobility choices. Therefore, companies should allow their employees flexibility in mobility. For example, by providing them with a mobility budget for public transport, shared mobility such as e-bikes, car sharing or e-scooters, taxis or fuel credits. This is also suitable for car commuters who want to cycle more for business appointments.
A flexible mobility budget card is a great way to encourage employees to cycle to work. This card can be provided by employers and allows employees to pay for their cycling costs as well as other mobility costs such as public transport and car sharing.
A mobility budget offers many advantages. On the one hand, it is easy to use and offers employees a convenient way to be flexible. For another, it can help encourage more employees to cycle to work without making a complete commitment to do so.
In addition, a mobility budget also helps employees think more about how they get to work and leave their own car behind more often. They can consider different options such as cycling, public transport or car sharing and choose the best option for them. This makes it an attractive, flexible alternative to the company car.
If companies want to give cycling an important place in their mobility strategy, they need to communicate this. It is important that the programme and measures are communicated transparently from the beginning to ensure that employees understand the benefits and conditions.
They should always emphasise why they think cycling is important and what the benefits are. The measures taken need to be regularly communicated to employees to ensure that they are always up to date. This can be done through regular emails, newsletters or internal announcements. Affected departments need to be involved at an early stage to ensure the success of the measures.
Many employees live within 10 kilometres of the office
Statistics show that almost half of all employees live less than 10 kilometres from their workplace. This is a distance that can easily be covered by bicycle (under 5 kilometres, the bicycle is even faster than the car), but a large proportion of them do not cycle to work. And even if you can't convince all of them, it would of course be very helpful if a larger part of them would use the bicycle. With the above tips, companies can already start doing this!
