7 Trailblazing Employers that Reward Cycling to Work

Do you know that some corporations are serving to staff to cycle to work? 

Throughout the globe, corporations are going above and past to get folks out of their automobiles and onto two wheels. 

On this article, we’ll take a look at why corporations ought to do extra to advertise biking, in addition to our choose of the highest 7 which might be exceeding expectations in terms of encouraging it.

Why ought to Firms Push Staff to Cycle to Work?

However why ought to corporations push staff to cycle to work? There are most likely extra advantages than you anticipate. 

First off, likelihood is that it’ll make them extra money. In keeping with SoCalCycling, those that commute by bike are extra productive at work than their driving colleagues. That is partly due to the dopamine the morning train releases, leading to happier, extra targeted employees.

It additionally signifies that they’re prone to take fewer sick days. Staff who cycle to work take 1.3 fewer sick days per yr, based on CyclingUk.

Encouraging staff to cycle additionally has clear well being advantages, and so they aren’t simply bodily. Biking can drastically influence, serving to to scale back anxiousness and stress each out and in of the workplace.

However which corporations are doing their half in getting folks onto bikes? Listed below are our high seven.

1. CLIF Bar & Firm

In the event you dwell and breathe biking, the following smartest thing after being an expert is to work at CLIF Bar & Firm.

In keeping with the Nutritious Power meals firm, joyful folks make one of the best meals, so it is sensible that they make such an effort to get staff to cycle! The truth is, the thought of the CLIF bar got here to founder Gary Erickson whereas on a journey with a good friend in 1990 in Northern California.

In keeping with Bicycling.com, CLIF Bar & Firm provides as much as $765 a yr in rewards for workers who commute by bike and an extra $500 each six years to purchase a brand new one.

If that wasn’t sufficient, staff are even allowed greater than two hours per week to train on the corporate’s time. We all know how we’d spend our time.

They actually have a Bike to Work month, the place the corporate donates to bike-related charities on behalf of the groups with the very best mileage.

2. Nice Ormond Avenue Hospital

In 2021, Nice Ormond Avenue turned the primary UK hospital to be awarded gold by Biking UK’s pleasant employer scheme. 

GOSH acknowledged that biking improved not solely the employees’s well being but additionally reduce the time spent touring to and from work.

Mark Hayden, a pediatric cardiac intensivist on the hospital, makes a wonderful level, noting that: 

“We aren’t caring for kids if we don’t defend the setting and attempt to decrease the detrimental impacts that local weather change can have on youngsters’s well being world wide.”

Biking to work doesn’t simply profit the staff, however the sufferers too. As extra employees ditch their automobiles, air high quality is probably going to enhance within the surrounding space, serving to to supply a more healthy setting for the kids.

The hospital has elevated the variety of bicycle parking areas obtainable to 300 and offered free bicycle upkeep to its almost 5,000-strong crew. In keeping with BikeBiz, the hospital has additionally been in talks with Transport for London (TfL) and Camden Council to hunt higher and safer biking routes for workers and guests alike.

3. HSBC

Do you know that one of many world’s greatest banks has been getting folks to cycle to work?

In 2019, HSBC UK partnered with British Biking on the Cycle Nation mission, a mission designed to be taught extra about getting folks onto bikes.

The partnership included trials in places of work throughout the UK for workers and a few analysis and evaluation. And that’s not all. Relating to discouraging automobiles, they’re severe about it. The financial institution has lowered worker parking areas by as much as 90% in a minimum of two places to encourage biking. 

Whereas the scheme was primarily designed to encourage staff to cycle, the outcomes of the trials have additionally been shared with the federal government and different employers in order that they’ll additionally promote the usage of bikes.

4. Tesco

The grocery store big is one other employer that’s going above and past in terms of bikes.

Way back to 2013, Tesco launched their bike-for-work scheme for his or her crew of over 1 / 4 of one million. The scheme was designed to scale back the monetary limitations to buying a motorcycle to get extra of its staff to keep away from the automobile when commuting.

Staff should buy bikes at a decrease price attributable to tax financial savings and pay for them in installments at no extra charge through a ‘wage sacrifice.’

As one of many UK’s greatest employers, it’s nice to see them promote biking as an reasonably priced and handy technique of transport to set an instance throughout the nation.

Soar ahead to 2024, and the scheme has reportedly been prolonged to incorporate e-bikes, making biking to work simpler and extra accessible. 

5. Cardiff Metropolitan College

After being awarded Wales’ most cycle-friendly enterprise, Cardiff Met is doing a fantastic job of getting folks to cycle to work.

The college has launched all-weather cycle storage passes for college kids and employees and devoted showers and lockers for bike commuters.

Not solely that, however they’ve launched bike physician classes to assist college students get again on the highway as shortly as attainable if any issues come up. And so they’re not simply serving to themselves. 

Recognizing the significance of neighborhood involvement, they’ve additionally donated undesirable bicycles to a neighborhood charity for refurbishment and recycling. As of 2021, some college students have additionally been actively working in partnership with Welsh Biking in in search of methods to extend participation throughout the entire nation.

6. New Belgium Brewing

Few issues go collectively, like bikes and craft beer. It’s an explicable match made in heaven.

New Belgium Brewing has a protracted historical past with bikes. The corporate was born after the founder, Jeff Lebesch, cycled by Belgium, sampling a couple of beers on the best way, little question! 

To at the present time, staff are gifted considered one of their iconic cruisers after a yr of employment. 

Employees on the Fort Collins headquarters are identified for hitting the cyclocross collectively on their lunch break, and so they’re additionally welcome to attend on-site bicycle ‘fix-it’ stations. 

Nevertheless it doesn’t simply profit their staff. Since its founding within the Nineteen Nineties, the corporate has additionally donated over 9 million {dollars} to bike non-profits nationwide!  

7. Essen Police Division

Do you would like there was a manner that you can mix your love of biking together with your ardour for regulation enforcement? There is perhaps a solution for you.

The Essen Police Division in Germany was not too long ago voted as probably the most cycle-friendly police power within the nation! 

The station is provided with bike racks, parking areas for cargo bikes, a garments drying station, charging stations for e-bikes, and even a small bicycle restore store!

The hope is that these amenities will encourage the officers to cycle to and through work and promote a tradition of biking throughout the city. 

Firms and establishments that encourage folks to cycle to work don’t simply profit economically however can massively enhance the environments by which they function.

We all know that bikes have superb transformative capabilities for communities, each native and international, and it’s the duty of companies to make this identified, nonetheless small the step may appear.