Your employees probably aren't waiting for your business to develop an EV strategy before buying an electric car.

They're making that decision themselves.

And as more employees make the switch, a question that may once have felt like a future consideration is becoming increasingly relevant for businesses:

Should we provide EV charging at work?

For many organisations, workplace EV charging is no longer simply about demonstrating sustainability credentials. It's becoming part of how businesses support employees, manage their car parks and prepare for a workforce that will increasingly arrive in electric vehicles.

So, is your workplace ready?

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Start by Understanding Employee Demand

You don't need to wait until half the car park is electric before thinking about charging.

Equally, you don't necessarily need to install a charger for every employee who currently drives an EV.

Start by understanding demand.

Consider:

• How many employees currently drive EVs?
• How many are considering switching?
• What's their average commute?
• How often are employees actually in the workplace?
• How long are vehicles typically parked?
• Are company vehicles likely to electrify too?
• Do customers or visitors also need access to charging?

A simple employee survey can give you a much clearer picture of current and future requirements.

And importantly, plan for where demand is heading rather than only where it is today.

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Take Advantage of Workplace Dwell Time

One of the biggest advantages workplaces have when it comes to EV charging is time.

An employee arriving at 9am may leave their vehicle parked until 5pm.

That's potentially eight hours available for charging.

It means workplaces don't automatically need the fastest chargers available.

Instead, the objective should be to provide enough energy during the time vehicles are already parked.

Matching charger speed to dwell time can reduce unnecessary infrastructure costs while making better use of the site's available electrical capacity.

The right charger isn't necessarily the fastest one. It's the one that fits how your workplace operates.

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Understand What Your Site Can Support

Before choosing chargers, you need to understand the building.

Adding multiple EV chargers increases electrical demand, and your existing supply may have limitations.

A site assessment can establish:

• Available electrical capacity
• Potential charger locations
• Groundworks requirements
• Connectivity
• Whether load management is required
• Opportunities for future expansion

This doesn't automatically mean an expensive electrical upgrade.

Smart load management can allow available power to be distributed between chargers based on demand, helping businesses introduce workplace charging without every vehicle drawing maximum power simultaneously.

Planning this early can also make future expansion significantly easier.

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Decide Who Gets to Charge

Once workplace chargers arrive, another question quickly follows:

Who gets to use them?

Your chargers might need to accommodate:

• Employees
• Visitors
• Company vehicles
• Fleet vehicles
• Members of the public

Different businesses will have different priorities.

You might reserve certain chargers for fleet vehicles, give employees access during working hours or allow visitors to charge while attending meetings.

For suitable sites, there's also the opportunity to open chargers to the public outside normal working hours.

At Scotmas Group in Kelso, for example, workplace charging was designed to support the business while also allowing public charging outside operating hours. It demonstrates how workplace infrastructure can potentially create value beyond the working day.

The important part is deciding how you want the infrastructure to work before demand starts creating conflicts in the car park.

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Decide Who Pays

Providing workplace charging doesn't automatically mean providing free electricity.

Businesses have several options.

Charging could be:

• Free as an employee benefit
• Subsidised by the employer
• Charged at the cost of electricity
• Offered at different tariffs for different users
• Monetised for visitors or public users

There's no universally correct approach.

What's important is having a clear policy that's fair, easy for employees to understand and straightforward for the business to manage.

The right EV charging software can make this considerably easier by allowing businesses to control access, monitor usage and apply different pricing structures where required.

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Think About the Employee Experience

Workplace EV charging can be a valuable employee benefit.

Being able to arrive at work, plug in and return to a charged vehicle at the end of the day removes the need to make a separate charging stop.

That's particularly valuable for employees who don't have access to off-street parking or home charging.

But workplace charging only improves the employee experience if it's easy to use.

If there aren't enough chargers, bays are constantly occupied by fully charged vehicles, or employees don't understand who can use them, the benefit can quickly become a source of frustration.

That's why the charging policy matters almost as much as the infrastructure.

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Don't Forget the Parking Policy

Installing EV chargers can change how employees use your car park.

Imagine four EV charging bays and ten employees wanting to charge.

What happens when someone's vehicle finishes charging at lunchtime but remains parked there until 5pm?

Workplaces should consider establishing simple rules around:

• Charging bay usage
• Maximum charging periods
• Moving vehicles once charging is complete
• Booking or scheduling
• Priority users
• Non-EVs parking in charging bays

You don't necessarily need a complicated system.

But setting expectations early can prevent problems as usage grows.

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Think About Your Fleet at the Same Time

Employee charging and fleet charging don't always need to be treated as completely separate projects.

If your organisation operates company cars, vans or other vehicles, consider how they're likely to transition to electric.

Infrastructure being installed for employees today could potentially form part of a wider electrification strategy tomorrow.

That doesn't mean the same chargers will necessarily serve every use case.

Fleet vehicles can have very different charging requirements based on mileage, shifts and operational schedules.

But considering both requirements together can help avoid duplicated infrastructure, unnecessary groundworks or decisions that limit future expansion.

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Don't Wait Until the Car Park Forces the Conversation

Workplace EV charging is much easier to plan when you're ahead of demand.

Waiting until employees are competing for a small number of sockets—or asking why charging isn't available at all—puts the business in a reactive position.

You don't need to install infrastructure for every EV your employees might own five years from now.

But you should understand:

What's the demand today?

Where is it heading?

What can your site support?

How should employees access and pay for charging?

And how easily can the infrastructure grow?

Answer those questions now and you can introduce workplace EV charging at a pace that makes sense for your business.

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Is Your Workplace Ready?

Your employees' transition to electric vehicles isn't something your business controls.

But how prepared your workplace is for that transition is.

The right workplace EV charging strategy can support employees, prepare for future fleet electrification, strengthen sustainability initiatives and ensure your infrastructure grows alongside demand.

And it doesn't have to start with a huge installation.

It starts with understanding what your workplace actually needs.

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Speak to Connekt

If you're seeing more EVs appearing in your workplace car park, now is a good time to start the conversation.

Connekt can assess your existing demand, electrical capacity, future requirements and available funding options to help you build a workplace charging solution that makes sense today and can grow with your business.

Speak to Connekt about workplace EV charging.

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