Back to the workplace

Reduced communication and productivity may weigh against a post-pandemic swap to homeworking

THE home office may not be here to stay - two-thirds of businesses say they don’t intend to increase homeworking in the future. Of businesses that have not permanently stopped trading, 19% said they intended to use increased homeworking as a permanent business model going forward, according to a survey by the Office for National Statistics.

However, 67% of those asked between September 7 and September 20 said it wouldn’t be a permanent feature.

This may in part be because many businesses haven’t switched to homeworking during the pandemic - just 26% said they have more staff working at home as a result of the virus.

However, that varies from 2% of transport and storage businesses to 55% of those in information and communications.

Of businesses that said they weren’t intending to increase homeworking in the future, the main reason given was that it wasn’t suitable for the business (66%).

That was followed by reduced communication (10%), a negative impact on working culture (8%), and reduced productivity (5%).

Businesses may be right to be concerned about productivity - the survey found that of those who had increased numbers of staff working from home, 24% said productivity had decreased, compared to 12% who said it had increased (most said it had stayed the same, at 52%).

However, the businesses that have been seeing a productivity boost from homeworking may be the ones keen to keep the practice going.

Of those businesses that said they would use increased homeworking as a permanent business model going forward, 34% gave increased productivity as a reason.

Other potential positives cited were improved staff wellbeing (60%) and reduced overheads (55%).

The ONS findings mirror research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which found that while the shift to homeworking had been positive for many employers, it also brought challenges.

In the research Embedding New Ways of Working, employers said the shift had improved work-life balance (cited by 61% of employers), enhanced employee collaboration (43%) and improved focus (38%).

However, it also highlighted the challenges of managing home workers with employers highlighting reduced staff mental wellbeing (47%), problems with staff interaction/cooperation (36%) and difficulties with line managing home workers (33%) and monitoring their performance (28%).

Peter Cheese, CIPD CEO, said: “The step-change shift to home working to adapt to lockdowns has taught us all a lot about how we can be flexible in ways of working in the future.

“This should be a catalyst to change long held paradigms and beliefs about work for the benefit of many.

“Employers have learnt that, if supported and managed properly, home working can be as productive and innovative as office working and we can give more opportunity for people to benefit from better work-life balance.

“This can also help with inclusion and how we can create positive work opportunities across our economies.

“But it doesn’t suit everyone and increasingly organisations will have to design working arrangements around people’s choice and personal preference over where and when they would like to work, whilst also meeting the needs of the business.

“Employers will also have to redouble efforts to introduce flexible working arrangements for staff unable to work from home otherwise they will increasingly have a two-tier workforce of those who have opportunity to benefit from home working and flexibility and those who don’t.”