Unilever, Twitter, Square and many more companies have announced their staff may never return to working a five-day week in the office. But what do workers want?
A new survey by digital workplace provider Claromentis reveals that, after lockdown ends and the threat of the pandemic subsides, almost three quarters (73%) of UK knowledge workers want a hybrid arrangement, splitting their time between home and the office.
Of the 73%, the average employee wants to work from home for around two thirds (64%) of their working week, and spend around a third (36%) of their time working from the office.
Six in 10 (60%) of those who favour a hybrid arrangement want the flexibility to drop in to the office and co-work with their team when it suits them, while 29% would prefer set days each week when the whole company has to be in the office. The least popular option is credits or vouchers for a co-working space local to their homes: only preferred by 5% of respondents.
More women (65%) than men (55%) would prefer the fluidity of an office they could drop into anytime. More men (32%) than women (26%) would prefer to have set days when the whole company has to be in the office each week.
By contrast, only a fifth (20%) of total respondents want to work remotely 100% of the time, while just 7% want to work from the office full time. Those aged 45-54 are the most likely age group to prefer working from home 100% of the time (26%) compared to just 15% of 18-24 year olds.
73% of UK employees want to split their time between office and home
60% want the flexibility to choose what days they work from the office
41% prefer to work from home because of the financial savings
33% urgently want better communication and collaboration tools
Of the respondents who generally prefer to work from home over working from the office, we asked them why. Just over four in 10 (41%) chose financial savings as the main reason behind it.
In one month of working from home, the average remote worker saves £120 per month in commute costs, £47 on coffee and refreshments, £62 on lunch and £70 on other costs. Parents save an additional £60 per month in reduced childcare costs.
The top 10 reasons for preferring to work remotely over going to the office are listed in order of popularity in the table below:
| Rank | What are your top reasons for preferring to work remotely/from home over working from the office? (Select up to five) | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Financial savings | 41.0% |
| 2 | I am more productive | 37.2% |
| 3 | I feel less stressed or anxious (positive impact on mental health) | 31.8% |
| 4 | I have always hated commuting | 31.3% |
| 5 | Fewer distractions | 26.4% |
| 6 | More time for health, fitness or wellness activities | 25.8% |
| 7 | It’s better for the environment | 25.5% |
| 8 | Less office politics | 25.2% |
| 9 | More quality time with my kids | 18.2% |
| 10 | More time for pursuing my hobbies or interests | 18.2% |
Remote work also offers freedom around where individuals are able to live. As such, some are planning to live in rural areas or overseas, while others are planning to travel more in the future:
| “Strongly agree” | “Somewhat agree” | |
|---|---|---|
| In the next 3 years, I plan move to a rural area, enabled by remote working | 10.6% | 19.7% |
| In the next 3 years, I plan to travel more, enabled by remote working | 14.0% | 24.1% |
| In the next 3 years, I plan to live overseas, enabled by remote working | 9.0% | 15.5% |
However, 85% say they have experienced some downsides to remote working. Based on answers from all survey respondents, the top five are:
That said, 37% “strongly agree” and 30% “somewhat agree” that the benefits of remote work outweigh any disadvantages.
Nine in 10 employees have spotted ways their employer could improve productivity for the remote workforce.
Survey respondents were also asked to highlight urgent and non-urgent areas for improvement in their companies. Most pressing is better mental health provision, flagged as an urgent area for improvement by 39% of employees.
Many employees think that the following are urgently required to better support a remote workforce: improved collaboration and communication tools (33%) – as shown in the chart below – more opportunities for e-learning and training (33%), a stronger culture in the digital workplace (31%), more streamlined technology instead of fragmented apps (30%) and decent project management tools (29%).
Meanwhile, many businesses are not yet paperless: 30% of employees say automating paper processes is an urgent area for improvement in their companies. But this is a bigger problem in medium-sized businesses of 251-999 employees, where 36% identify this as an urgent area to improve.
CEO & founder of digital workplace Claromentis
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