88% of employees want remote working to continue

Most workers want to continue working from home despite the government push to get back to the office.

While the government may now be urging a return to work following the Covid-19 lockdown, with health minister Matt Hancock saying that face-to-face contact is vital for colleagues, many UK workers are quite happy to continue to work from home. 

Remote working has seen a rise in popularity over the years, with 4.7% of employees reporting that they mainly worked from home in 2019 compared to just 1.5% back in 1981. According to a new report, January/February of this year saw 5.7% of workers mainly working from home, which then spiked massively to 43.1% in April. 

Although many people started to return to work in June, the number of people continuing to work from home remained fairly high at 36.5%, showing that it has remained a popular option. 

In fact, a huge 88.2% of employees who worked from home during lockdown want to carry on with remote working in some way even after offices are back to normal. Just under half (47.3%) report that they want to work from home all or most of the time.

Those who hadn’t previously worked from home seem to have enjoyed the experience too, as 50% of new homeworkers also want to carry on working remotely or always after Covid-19 restrictions are totally lifted. All of this means that homeworking is likely to become much more normal in the coming months, even with offices reopening. 

However, not all companies are convinced that remote working is the way forward, with concerns being raised about a fall in staff productivity at home compared to in the office. The report finds that this isn’t really an issue though, as 40.9% of workers said they were able to get as much work done in June as they were during the six months earlier. More than a quarter (28.9%) said they were more productive while just slightly more (30.2%) said they were less productive. 

It seems that those who work at home more often benefited from a rise in productivity during lockdown, compared to those who didn’t previously work from home who saw productivity fall. Of those who said that they were able to do more per hour at home than in the six months prior to lockdown, 65.5% said they want to carry on working mainly from home in the future. 

These statistics seem to suggest that the switch to remote working got off to a shaky start to begin with as people scrambled to get workspaces and equipment set up at home. However, after the initial struggle, most employees have found that remote working offers a huge number of benefits. 

If you are considering making the switch to homeworking or if your team is likely to carry on working remotely some of the time going forward, it is important to consider where you are working. 

While lockdown meant that many people were left having to work from kitchen tables or living rooms, this is not sustainable in the long-run. Setting up a dedicated home office is an important part of maintaining comfort and organization when working, which means looking for a suitable desk and an ergonomic chair.  

We are able to offer advice on suitable home office furniture whether you are buying just for yourself or if your company is kitting out your team. Get in touch by sending an email to help@bluespotfurniture.co.uk, starting a live chat or giving us a call on 0800 804 4760 to see how we can help you work comfortably and productively from home.