Despite remote working becoming the new norm due to COVID-19, almost half of workers believe their employer will revert back to previous policies once the pandemic has passed.
Visier, a cloud-based analytics application, which found that 47 per cent of staff believe their working practices will revert back to normal once this virus passes. Despite 68 per cent saying they are either more or equally as productive as they are when they work in the office.
More than a quarter (28 per cent) believe their employer will not adopt the previous style of work they had in place before the outbreak of COVID-19 and become more flexible.
The majority (77 per cent) of employees are now working remotely, with 75 per cent saying their employer trusts them to be productive whilst working remotely. Just under a third (31 per cent) feel their work-life balance has become easier since isolation began.
However, 31 per cent have stated that their boss has enforced new processes to make sure they can view their staff’s output. Less than a tenth (9 per cent) have said their employer has handled the rolling out of remote working badly.
Jan Schwarz, co-founder of Visier said:
It reflects positively on the UK’s HR industry that workers think companies who are new to remote working have handled a tough situation so well. These companies have had to transform themselves overnight and tackle major cultural and technological obstacles. They deserve real credit for their adaptability under real pressure. There are of course work activities and roles that are best served by face-to-face interaction, and some workers simply have a preference for it. But it’s still disappointing to hear so many respondents predict their employers will walk away from the change they have created once the worst of the crisis is over.
Covid-19 has prompted the world’s biggest home working experiment. It has rapidly sped up the future of work, and will impact the way we think about work in the years to come. The worst thing that companies can do is ignore what they have learned about their workforce and how they like to operate. Companies who have resisted the new world of work until now have had their worlds turned upside down but there is a real opportunity for HR leaders to help them continue their digital transformation. Whatever stage a business is at, understanding your employees is essential. Only through data can organisations understand the impact of their digital transformation and foster the right culture to support it.
Visier asked more than 1,000 employees who are either not normally allowed to work from home or who do so no more than once per week on average to obtain these results.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
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