More Brits to work from home

More than 13 million people plan to ask their employer to continue with flexible working once lockdown is lifted, a new report suggests.

Research from Direct Line Life Insurance indicates that 44 per cent of workers are set to request their employer provides permanent flexible working arrangements after coronavirus restrictions are fully lifted.

About half of the workforce across the UK is now working from home full time according to the latest official figures.

Working from home two days a week is the most popular option for those wishing to maintain long-term flexible arrangements once it becomes safe to return to their workplace, with one in eight (12 per cent) hoping to do so, the study shows.

Other popular options are working from home one day (10 per cent) or three days a week (10 per cent). And with lockdown proving that fulltime remote working is now feasible, one in 12 people (8 per cent) is planning to ask their employer to work from home permanently.

Additional research among HR directors by the insurer found that companies are already preparing to receive significant volumes of flexible working requests once the pandemic has eased.

Chloe Couper, business manager at Direct Line Life Insurance, said: “While the lockdown has been an incredibly difficult and disruptive time for many, it seems to have also had an impact on the mindset of millions of UK workers about the aspects of their life they want to change once it is over.”

She added: “Many people wouldn’t have considered their employer would accept a flexible working request, despite it being legal to make one, before the pandemic, but now companies and employees have become used to home working as the ‘new norm’, it seems many hope to make part of the change permanent.”