“Our Survey Said…”
A separate survey of 500 employers by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation found that one in four large businesses would consider hiring people who did not live close to the office, reflecting the shift toward a more flexible labour market. The confederation argued that this approach could benefit large numbers of workers and result in a further boost to national productivity as employers open themselves up to a wider pool of talent.
Office workers saved an average of £1,268 while working from home since the first lockdowns began last March. However, they admitted that they had been less productive. Office workers surveyed by Atlas Cloud ranked their overall job effectiveness as 7 per cent worse while working from home.
Pete Watson, chief executive of Atlas Cloud, said: “The most striking and consistent finding throughout each lockdown has been that employees do not want to go back to the traditional full-time office arrangement — but they don’t want to lose offices as a working environment and place to meet with colleagues, either. Instead, the findings point again to the future of hybrid working.”
A Perfect Storm for Small Business Owners
It has to be said that a perfect storm does seem to be coming. As the ‘end is in sight’ for many businesses being allowed to re-open, they have many decisions to make. Workers have many decisions to make.
Businesses will need to balance the books, with overheads, (including staffing levels) versus the potential business they think they will do in a post Brexit Britain, still in the middle of a Global pandemic. This could result in more redundancies that haven’t hit the headline unemployment figures yet, as furlough and Government support ends. Add to that some workers will view what they’ve been through as a change in work/life balance and will add to the self employed and small business market.
As for the person writing this? I’d give anything to be working in the office right now, a home is a home. A home is not a lockdown prison.
