Survey – Feb 2021

Hybrid Working Challenges and Considerations

Hybrid working – a split between home and office working – is gaining increasing traction, with many observers expecting it to become the future of work.

Our latest survey looks into rapidly shifting UK work preferences and the implications for implementing a hybrid workplace strategy.

About the survey

Conducted in January 2021, our research findings are based on a survey of 2,000 randomly selected respondents, consisting of UK employees over the age of 17 that had worked from home during the third Coronavirus lockdown.

The margin of sampling error is +/-3% percentage points, with a confidence level of 99%.

Executive Summary

For those in a rush, we present to you the top findings of the survey:

Half of workers could quit jobs if businesses ignore employee work from home preferences
We predict approximately 4.65 million workers will begin searching for a new job on the basis of working location preferences in the coming months
Less than half (48%) of office workers have exclusive access to a dedicated workspace at home (that has no other household uses)
The average worker has spent £215.55 on their home workstation during the pandemic
Almost half (47%) of homeworkers have a home schooling child in the same household during the third national lockdown

Hybrid Working Challenges and Considerations Report

A handy PDF outlining the findings of our lockdown 3.0 survey and what they mean for your business.

The Stats

What are employee and employer working preferences post Covid-19?

There’s a huge gap between what employees now want and what employers want.

How many employees expect they won't able to work their preference post lockdown?

More than half of employees look set to become unhappy post-pandemic.

That’s a lot of people.

How likely are employees to move to another employer if they're unable to work their preference?

Crucially, a huge quantity of those will be motivated enough to want to look for a job elsewhere.

We’re predicting a lot of recruitment activity post-pandemic – unless, of course, the gap between employee preferences and employer preferences starts to close.

What is the impact of working from home compared to the office?

It’s during a pandemic, of course, but we’re seeing a drop off in all key areas of desk-based working.

Some of these will improve as restrictions ease, others will have to be carefully considered by employers if distributed workforces are to be successful.

WORK/LIFE BALANCE BY AGE

Where this data really started to come to life was when we split answers by age.

In every category, there was a clear trend that the younger you are, the harder you were finding it to work from home. The work/life balance figure says it all.

How many people worked from home per household?

Working from home during a pandemic isn’t easy at the best of times. Especially when more than one person is taking up Wi-Fi bandwidth and desk space.

What has workspace access been like at home?

If you’ve been working from home during this pandemic with a dedicated office workspace and supportive chair – and you’ve not had to share it with others in your household – take note that you are actually in the minority. You should count yourself lucky!

It should be a warning to employers – what can they do help struggling employees? Act now or wait for the staff health problems later down the line.

What is the split of device ownership when working from home?

We’re using personal devices for work. A lot.

That carries compliance risk (who else in the household can access company information?) and cyber security risk (does it has the latest AV?) on top of the obvious productivity implications.

What was the average commute saving?

If the average UK salary is £30,420 (correct as of Feb ‘21), we spent 5% of our take home pay on the commute – until the pandemic, that is. Imagine giving everyone a 5% pay increase!

Who applied for jobs with a new employer and how far did they get?

Around 10-15% of workers usually change jobs over the course of a year. Not during 2020 – less than 5% did. But, we predict 4.65 million extra workers will start to look for a new employer when restrictions ease – based on the differences between employer and employee workplace preferences, and employee desire for change.

What was the satisfaction level for new hires during the pandemic?

For those that did move, remote onboarding wasn’t deemed to be perfect. Companies must look to improve this while operating a distributed workforce.

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