A new report published by experience management software company, Qualtrics XM has found the reality of what the ‘new normal’ could look like for the average UK office worker. In their report titled ‘The Future of Work in 2021’ the software company asked 4,000 people their thoughts on working from home during and post-Covid.
Some of the top findings from the report include:
- 73 per cent of people want to continue working remotely at least one or two days a week
- Only 27 per cent of people want to go back to the office full-time while only 7 per cent would want to permanently work from home
- 46 per cent of people expect to see significant changes in their open space when they return to work
- Those who work in large, open plan offices are 30 per cent more likely to demand change to their working space
Qualtrics XM also investigated how the new hybrid working model (2 days at home, 3 days in the office) would benefit employees post-pandemic. The research found the outlook for office workers is very positive:
- Workers who work from home 2 days a week after the pandemic could save 102 hours of commuting a year
- They could also get back 16 hours of meeting time and 13 more hours of lunch a year
- The number of work-related sick days would also be at their lowest since 2010
Sally Winston, head of employee experience solutions strategy EMEA at Qualtrics, explains organisations need to respond to new employee expectations of what they want from working life. “With nearly three-quarters of employees wanting to work from home some of the week, we need to design a hybrid mix of physical and remote work in such a way that benefits employees while also creating optimal company performance.
“To keep this balance, and improve retention, businesses must keep listening to employees about the reasoning behind their preferences on returning to the office rather than focusing solely on the organisations’ desire to return to ‘normal’ operations.”
