Positive balance but drawbacks from homeworking: report
Pros and cons for office workers, including those in law, from having to work from home in recent months have been revealed in a report from Culture Shift, a UK based software development business that promotes positive change in organisational culture.
The survey of 1,000 employees in sectors including insurance, banking and financial services, law and technology, finds the office workforce split between those who report positively and those reporting negatively on their experience of remote working during the COVID-19 lockdown.
While 28% overall, and 30% of those in law, said that working from home had had a positive impact on their mental health (and 44% are "dreading going back to the workplace"), with 54% (52% in law) claiming working from home has improved their work-life balance, 47% of respondents feel isolated when working from home and 39% of those in law said it has had a negative impact on their mental health.
Similarly, 36% reported greater productivity, 34% improved creativity and 29% greater motivation – but 25% (35% in law) have felt a negative impact other training and development and 23% (26% in law) an adverse impact on promotion opportunities.
Among over 55s, higher percentages are recorded both for improved work-life balance (63%) and reduced training opportunities (35%); among 16 to 24 year olds, 46% claim improved motivation.
Around 40% say their boss is making more effort to communicate or has asked about their wellbeing more often; 26% say they have had less one-to-one time than before.
For the future, 57% say they would like to remain working from home, 81% say remote working opportunities are important to them, and fully 90% place importance on flexibility.
The report, which also covers attitudes to diversity and experiences of unacceptable behaviour as well as changing attitudes to work, concludes among other points that remote working has positively impacted employees’ wellbeing for the most part and is an approach employers should consider as they plan for the future. However, creating and maintaining a diverse, inclusive and supportive culture needs to remain top of mind, ensuring some key factors, like training and development, do not fall through the cracks.
Gemma McCall, CEO and co-founder of Culture Shift, commented: "With many organisations across the country now thinking about how they can bring employees back to the office safely, we wanted to hone in on the general consensus on remote working these past few months. While there have been some minor issues, it’s generally been quite successful."