New research from the CIPD claims that employers now expect the proportion of people working from home on a regular basis will increase to 37 percent compared to 18 percent before the pandemic. Employers also expect the proportion of staff who work from home all the time to rise to 22 percent post-pandemic compared to 9 percent before lockdown measures started to be imposed.
The survey of 1,046 employers also suggests that, overall, employers believe people working from home are as productive as other workers, with 28 percent of employers believing the increase in homeworking has increased productivity or efficiency, compared to 28 percent of organizations that report the opposite effect and 37 percent that don’t believe there has been any effect on productivity or efficiency.
Organizations reported that during the lockdown the average proportion of the workforce working from home continuously was 54 percent.
To support the shift to more regular homeworking and other forms of flexible working, the CIPD says the right to request flexible working should become a day-one right for all employees, rather than after 26-weeks as currently required.
The Government has pledged to consult on whether to make flexible working the default position unless employers have a good reason not to.