From April 2020, data showed that 49.2% of the UK working population was working full time from home and during a turbulent year, according to various studies people found they were more productive from home. This was due to a combination of removing their commute time and feeling more motivated to work from home, with less work meetings and colleagues as a distraction… but have we reached remote working fatigue?
If we are to try and find any positives out of this awful pandemic, it’s that it has allowed businesses to think differently around how they work, with some businesses such as Twitter going as far as making all jobs 100% home based. I would question whether many UK businesses would follow suit, but it certainly means the dependency to be ‘in the office’ has been less and has shown people can work as effectively (and sometimes arguably more!) from home. Organisations in general have accepted that the working pattern has changed forever due to COVID and I would anticipate most working weeks after we get through this pandemic will be more balanced to home/remote working vs office based potentially looking at only 1-2 days in the office maximum a week. This therefore widens the talent pool of candidates who are prepared to commute further, if it is only for 1 or 2 days a week and potentially is a shining light on stimulating the employment market by the Spring, when hopefully lockdown restrictions begin to lift.
Probrand found in a study that 70% of workers found working from home options make an employer a lot more attractive to work for than those who don’t – so clearly those that don’t offer flexible working after this pandemic are going to be left behind.
But how do we feel about potentially going back to an office? I have asked this question a lot in recent weeks to a range of Procurement professionals and I have both ends of the spectrum in response. This ranges from people not wanting to go back at all, to people who cannot wait to return and see their colleagues in person. Personally, I probably sit somewhere in the middle. It’s strange to think I haven’t been to a client site nor meet a candidate face to face for over a year, just something I never thought I would be saying!
As much as it’s great to talk to my clients and candidates via video and this does make everyone more accessible, nothing beats meeting people face to face… going to a brand new client’s office, getting a feel for the environment, how easy it is to park there, what the coffee tastes like in the cafeteria or what the office feels like in terms of its energy and layout are just things you can’t gauge via video.
This pandemic has taught me how to balance my life better and I think this will be a really positive step change too with remote working vs office working as we move out of the lockdown. We should see more balance to how we work as well as where we work and hopefully this will allow us to connect together again while not feeling guilty of having a day working from home.
