Before the Coronavirus pandemic the terms “homeworking” and ‘hybrid work’ was unfamiliar to many.

As we know, when the virus hit in March 2020 a large proportion of businesses and workers were compelled into taking emergency measures to prevent the spread. Some businesses, most memorably in hospitality, simply closed up and furloughed their staff. Others, in sectors such as public services, were encouraged to continue working. Others in office-based occupations discovered the joys of Teams and Zoom and found that they could continue work pretty much as normal, but at home. 

During lockdowns most people had some kind of experience of working from home, many perhaps for the first time. Then as lockdowns eased, and a cautious return to work was on the cards, the exploration of homeworking models really began. 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) keeps a close tab on such things, and the trends are clear.

Since that harsh Christmas 2020 lockdown, the proportion of people working entirely from home has declined, as we’d expect from 40% to around 17% today. The number of those travelling in to work all of the time increased somewhat; but the volume of those describing their working life as ‘hybrid’, that is mixing some working from home with some time at the office, has been rising steadily, particularly in the first half of 2022. 

Clearly some sectors such as manufacturing or healthcare will require staff on site, but there is clear evidence that the amount of staff working in a homeworking manner is rising. 

This is perhaps not surprising. I suspect everyone reading this has had conversations about the benefits of hybrid working: that happy mix of being able to socialise at work a few days, while on the others being able to concentrate better while comfy at home to get that report finished without distractions other than stroking the cat! 

While we feel this to be true instinctively, it is also backed up by increasing amounts of research, pretty much all of it pointing in the same direction. Research from Owl Labs  states:

”remote and hybrid employees were 22% happier than workers in an onsite office environment and stayed in their jobs longer. Plus, remote workers had less stress, more focus and were more productive than when they toiled in the office. Working from home led to better work/life balance and was more beneficial for the physical and mental wellbeing of employees.” 

So it appears that employees like homeworking. But do the bosses?

Whether employers feel that remote or homeworking is a good idea, or sustainable in the long term, often revolves around the concern that workers might bunk off, idly while the hours away watching daytime TV, or otherwise not give 100% to the organisation. 

Such fears appear to be unfounded. Research by Bloomberg in the US involving over 100 million data points of evidence, uncovered “a five per cent increase in productivity during the pandemic work-from-home period.” What seemed to be most true was that “if an employee was highly productive in-office, they’ll be productive at home; if an employee slacked off at the office, they’ll do the same at home.” 

Recruit wisely, lead well, trust your staff, and hybrid working can be the best of all possible workplace models. 

Hybrid working can, and often does, blend the best of both worlds, and workers clearly like it. The ONS reported that in February 2022 an astonishing 84% of “workers who had to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic said they planned to carry out a mix of working at home and in their place of work in the future.” The most common among workers’ intentions (42% and increasing) was to work ‘mostly from home’ and ‘sometimes’ from their usual place of work. 

Evidence and logic both point in the same direction: that an appropriate balance of well managed homeworking can work for everyone, employers and employees alike. 

While working ‘at work’ can be great for socialising with colleagues, useful for casual interactions at the photocopier, and ideal for networking, it can also be stressful. It might involve early starts, perhaps a rushed school run before commuting in a crowded train or stuck in traffic with the stress of being late, dressing in work ‘uniform’, eating a curled-up sandwich at the desk and long hours away from family or pets. It can also be simply unpleasant if you need to share a small office space for 7 hours every day with colleagues you wouldn’t normally choose to mix with. 

Working at home all the time can have similar drawbacks: isolation or a feeling of disconnect with the organisation being a prominent one. 

Homeworking works for most people. To work well, however, it does need to be planned properly. 

What really matters in hybrid working is how leaders and staff interact. This includes how they communicate, establish clear instructions and expectations and how they manage the evolving situation in a mature, collaborative manner. 

If the employer and employee can develop mature and sensible attitudes involving trust, empathy and understanding, then hybrid working’s benefits can be enjoyed by all. It seems obvious that a worker who is motivated, relaxed and comfortable is likely to be more productive, creative and positive in attitude than one who is stressed or anxious. As the research clearly shows that hybrid working promotes both staff wellbeing and productivity, it would appear that no progressive, sensible employer would insist ever again that everyone ‘comes into the office every day’ or else? 

This is perhaps why the reaction to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s infamous “I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon” card that he left on the desks of civil servants who were working remotely, was so quick and decisive. The idea of forcing people back to work – as if they hadn’t been working all that time they couldn’t come into the office – has been described as “toxic to culture” and worse. 

Organisational psychologist and research fellow John Amaechi OBE, said that Rees Mogg’s initiative could have a deleterious effect on workplace culture. He labelled it an approach that “misunderstands the relationship between employers and their colleagues. In the transactional sense, it is the most parent–child exchange you can witness. It’s an abuse of power and everyone will see it as that. This is toxic and corrosive for any culture that would build excellence.” 

Homeworking is not necessarily new, or simply the product of circumstance because of a virus. Many progressive businesses and institutions have been encouraging hybrid working for years. One business owner, working in the creative industries, said, “Since the invention of the internet, so for about thirty years now, we’ve encouraged a mix of home and office working. Around 5 staff choose to work in the office every day, but we also employ another 8 or 9 who work in a hybrid manner and about another 30 freelancers whom we rarely see and who can be working from a crofter’s cottage in Shetland for all we know.” 

That business leader cited better productivity, lower costs (smaller office, etc.), and happier staff as the reasons they would never go back to fully ‘at work’ working. In some sectors, there is a long history of hybrid working, and reaching out to those employers and staff who have been working in this manner for years can be really instructive and helpful. 

Homeworking, then, can have enormous benefits but like all things in life it depends on how it is done. This means how well relationships between employer and employee can be forged and maintained. It depends on sustaining a sense of working together in the common cause, and it hinges on ensuring that all colleagues are seen to be treated equitably.  

In short, its success centres on the normal attributes of great leadership and management, regardless of location.