The Office for National Statistics (ONS)@ONS has published new research on homeworking, showing that most people (61%) want to spend at least half of their time working from home post-pandemic.
The proportion of working adults who did any work from home in 2020 increased to 37% on average from 27% in 2019 with workers living in London the most likely to homework.
When asked about homeworking, working adults stated work-life balance was the greatest positive, while challenges of collaboration were the greatest negative.
Of businesses not permanently stopped trading, 24% stated that they intended to use increased homeworking going forward, with the Information and Communication industry recording the highest proportion (49%).
Online job adverts including terms related to “homeworking” have increased at a faster rate than total adverts, with homeworking adverts in May 2021 three times above their February 2020 average.
Of working adults currently homeworking, 85% wanted to use a “hybrid” approach of both home and office working in future. However, there was some uncertainty among businesses, with 32% stating they were not sure what proportion of the workforce will be working from their usual place of work.
Individuals reported the main advantage of homeworking being “an improvement to work-life balance”. Another positive was “a reduction in the time taken to complete work” which may be linked to most individuals finding there were fewer distractions when working at home compared with in the office. The main disadvantage was a feeling that it was harder to collaborate with others on work with “fewer job opportunities” also reported.
Responses to the Business Insights and Conditions Survey(BICS) cover the period 5th April to 2nd May 2021 while responses to the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) cover the period 21st April to 16th May 2021.
PAYadvice.UK 15/6/2021
