Almost two-thirds of employees would prefer a working-split between remote working and time spent in the office once the lockdown has come to an end.
The “Working from Home Survey” survey conducted by Engaging Works, founded by Lord Mark Price, former government Minister of Trade and managing director of Waitrose found that 60 per cent of workers’ ideal week would be split between remote and office-based working. Only 16 per cent wish to remain working from home once the current situation changes.
Still, employees working from home happiness score is 73 per cent, which is higher than the average workplace happiness score for the UK which is 65 per cent. Both men and women rank their happiness whilst remote working at the same level. Staff also said they are more productive when working from home.
The downsides of working from home seem to be 20 per cent of people becoming fed up with transforming their homes in to offices. As well as the feeling of isolationism as the blurring of work and home life can lead to working irregular hours.
Employees believe having a bigger house, at home childcare and a padlock on the fridge would benefit their remote working situation.
Lord Mark Price, founder of Engaging Works said:
In recent weeks businesses and employees have had to transform how they work, it’s been a big upheaval which can have knock on affects with performance and happiness levels. A workforce which is happy and engaged is likely to be 20 per cent more commercially successful compared to teams with unhappy employees.
Video conferencing is uniting work forces in an unprecedented way, resulting in employers re-evaluating the need for costly offices. If employers can ensure that employees are happy and productive when working from home, then the need for teams to be physically together becomes unnecessary.
This survey was based on the responses from 3,000 employees since lockdown began.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
