My personal view is that this could give rise to problems. If you are not spending money on travel to work fuel, you are spending it on heating and lighting at home. Arguably less so in the summer (depending on how far north you are - 18C and cloudy in Eastern Scotland today!). Would you indirectly discriminate against those who have a flexible working request to work from home more often? Would you find everyone coming into work, claiming the additional payment and you may as well then have just increased the salary? Or could you agree to more WFH? Those were my immediate thoughts - whilst I understand the real impact of rising fuel costs (£1.89 at my local today, increased from £179 only last week), I think only looking to support travelling staff could open all kinds of issues.

How about... *not* asking them to come into the office? Then pay them mileage if they have to.

In reply to Helen:

Thanks for this Helen. More food for thought. Could cause us more issues than it solves :)

In reply to Robey:

Thanks Robey. We experienced some resistance to a return to the office when we re-opened our workplace in February but have seen a lot of benefits in the months since. Less working in silos, more collaboration, improved relationships. I think if we promote homeworking again these areas will once again be adversely affected. Food for thought though.

Hi Sallie... and welcome to the Community.

A couple of different threads that yoiu might find interesting[?]

 RE: Change of place of work from home to office based

 Mid-year 'cost of living' payment

In reply to Sallie:

I can only speak to my own experience, Sallie. But I'm a contractor and have worked in a lot of different businesses over the course of lockdown and since, always working predominantly from home. And it is my opinion that the things that people value about office-based working can be delivered remotely with the right technology and the right culture.

Moreover, the academic evidence - from before lockdown and during the great experiment - is that businesses that can work remotely are consistently between 6% and 13% more productive when they do. And although I can't quote chapter and verse, I do seem to recall some research a few years ago that showed that business leaders consistently over-estimate the bottom line value of "water cooler" moments.

So to the benefits you cite, I would say "yes, but did you make more *money*?"