HALF OF SCOTS STILL WORKING FROM HOME
Frontline staff miss out on benefits of new world
MORE than half of employees are now working from home, either all or part of the time.
A report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found 15 per cent of employees in Scotland are now fully working from home, while 39 per cent work in a hybrid pattern.
Lee Ann Panglea, head of the CIPD in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: “We are at the heart of the transition to a postpandemic workplace, with new ways of working now becoming embedded in our working lives.”
Bosses are being urged to do more to ensure that those who cannot work from home do not lose out on the benefits of flexible working.
Lisa Gallagher of social business Flexibility Works said that frontline workers should not be “written off when it comes to new ways of working”.
She was speaking as Flexibility Works published research showing almost half (45 per cent) of frontline workers believe that their job could be done at different times to normal.
And 29 per cent feel that some parts of their work could be done from a different location.
Just over half (53 per cent) of frontline workers have had access to some flexible working, which is lower than the 60 per cent average recorded for all workers.
While flexible working has increased in the wake of Covid, concerns are being raised that it is office workers who have benefited most from the change while those in frontline roles – including nurses, carers, delivery drivers and retail staff – have missed out.