Chris Witty, the UK’s Chief Scientific Officer, has said the Covid-19 vaccination rollout may not prevent lockdowns. So, does this mean home working will continue to feature heavily in our work lives? We look at the future of flexible working and why it’s important for your staff.
New trends are evolving in the marketplace post-covid. Many companies are now asking their employees to work a few days in the office and a few days at home. They are choosing flexible working practices to keep hold of their staff. Office workers, at more senior level especially, now expect to work part of the week remotely since the changes that covid has brought.
Companies have reported there’s been a lot of productivity from flexible workers which they may not have expected pre-covid.
The latest results of homeworking in April from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that office workers who did some working from home, tended to see “a higher reward from homeworking than those who either worked exclusively away from or at home. They are also more likely to hold managerial responsibilities and have attained higher qualifications”.
In comparison, office workers who worked mainly from home were less than half as likely to be promoted and 38% less likely to receive a bonus.
Another benefit to companies offering their employees flexible working is that those employees only have a 0.9% sickness absence rate compared with 2.2% for employees who never work from home.
Employees who did any work from home did 6 hours of unpaid overtime per week on average compared to 3.6 hours for employees that never worked from home.
If the trend for working part of the week at home continues this could increase the number of jobs that are available for remote working. The ONS says “This would imply a more efficient allocation of labour which could therefore have potential implications for aggregate productivity.”
Now you’ve read about the future of flexible working and why it’s important for your staff, would you offer this for new recruits to gain the most experienced staff?
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