Nine out of 10 people in the UK who have been working from home during lockdown are keen to continue, according to a new report 'Homeworking in the UK: before and during the 2020 lockdown'. It reveals that the percentage of people working from
home in the UK jumped from 6% before the
pandemic to 43% in April - moreover, it also showed that productivity
mostly stable compared to the previous six months.
It follows the BBC's article yesterday that employers are increasingly coming round to the idea of shedworking and homeworking - law firm Linklaters, Lloyds Bank, Fujitsu,
and Twitter are among those who believe the time has come to embrace a more flexible working pattern. At the same time, the government continues to be set on telling people to return to offices.
The new report, by Professor Alan Felstead at Cardiff University and Darja Reuschke at the University of
Southampton, said 88% of employees who worked at home during lockdown wanted to continue doing so in some capacity, with just under half wanting to do
so often or all the time.
More than 40% said they got
as much work done at home as they did six months earlier, while a third said they got more done while homeworking.
“What is particularly
striking is that many of those who have worked at home during lockdown
would like to continue to work in this way, even when social distancing
rules do not require them to," said Professor Felstead. “These
people are among the most productive, so preventing them from choosing
how they work in the future does not make economic sense. Giving
employees flexibility on where they work could be extremely beneficial
for companies as they attempt to recover from the impact of Covid-19.”
Darja Reuschke added: "This provides an opportunity for us to radically
rethink our city centres as multi-use places that accommodate different
kinds of economic uses and are not built around fast roads that connect
workplaces with residences.”
Image courtesy Garden 2 Office
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