Is the future of work hybrid?

Where will you be? Listen here

The Global pandemic has created many challenges…one being how to keep workers safe and given that the message has been “stay at home”, it then meant that firms should provide the opportunities to work from home, clearly with some caveats. This would and could only apply to those whose role could be carried out safely from home. The service sector and where technology would allow.

What may not be realised is that a BBC 5 Live Wake Up To Money analysis revealed a 74% jump in the number of people working from their own home between 2008 and 2018. Some of this was already in place! More than 1.54 million people work from home for their main job – up from 884,000 ten years ago, according to the ONS Labour Force Survey, the largest study of employment circumstances in the UK.

More recent statistics then show that 60% of the UK’s adult population worked from home during the Coronavirus lockdown, and that 26% plan to continue to work from home permanently or occasionally after lockdown.

Where does that then leave us? Clearly the myth that working from home could not been done, has been consigned to the bin. How people perform can be measured in many ways, and this should not change. Similarly, the measurement should be in place to improve personal and team performance…not to catch people out simply because they are not sat in front of you!

Does homeworking have its challenges? Yes, but these are to be discussed with the employees…having the correct equipment, seating, light, and desk. The duty of care will still be in place. Will employees need further stimuli, contact with others and conversation? Yes, of course, but with the hybrid model, this disappears. Similarly, will some people be better suited to homeworking than others? Quite likely, yes!

As we develop into a more empowered workplace, employers that don’t offer the hybrid model will not attract the best talent. People will have choice…hybrid and hot desk or take their skills elsewhere.

Are you prepared for the challenge?

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt