Remote working trends

Research from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), suggests that most employers plan to continue offering a remote working option.

At the height of the pandemic, working from home became a necessity for many and proved to be a largely beneficial experience for both businesses and employees – and a recently published BCC survey of more than 900 firms suggests this is set to continue:

66% of surveyed businesses were offering remote working opportunities to employees

72% said they will have at least one staff member working remotely over the next 12 months, with these firms expecting an average of 53% of their workforce to work some hours remotely.

The survey highlighted a number of potential challenges presented by the shift to home working. The five most commonly cited barriers to implementing remote working were:

55% of firms said staff morale or mental health and wellbeing were an obstacle to remote working

30% pointed to issues of fairness for staff whose roles cannot be performed remotely

28% said monitoring productivity was an issue

26% felt that poor internet connectivity was a problem

24% cited issues with IT.

“These results show that nearly three quarters of firms will now continue to benefit from a remote working option during the coming year.  But it’s clear that some firms and individuals are facing barriers to remote working, with many employers concerned about the impact on team morale and employee wellbeing.” – Jane Gratton, Head of People Policy at the BCC