Homeworking

Following its inquiry into the effects and future development of remote and hybrid working in the UK, the House of Lords Committee on home-based working published its report, ‘Is working from home working?’.

The report notes that the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of office workers to work from home for the first time. As we emerged from the pandemic, there was a partial decline in fully remote work and a growth in hybrid work. This has now largely settled into a “new normal”, where a large minority of workers work from home at least some of the time. Although the UK has some of the highest levels of home working in the world, there is unequal access to home working opportunities (for example, differing by occupation, sector, education level and region).

The report examines how home working, in its various forms, has affected:

• Workers, in terms of their health, wellbeing, professional development and work-life balance;

• Employers, in terms of productivity, recruiting and retaining talent, collaboration and management;

• The wider economy and society, in terms of the knock-on effects, domestically and, by comparison, internationally;

• The Government, as it seeks to increase national productivity, employment and economic growth.

The report makes numerous recommendations, including that the government should:

• Fund research into the mental and physical health implications of remote and hybrid working;

• Publicise the mental health benefits and risks of remote working through a campaign directed at workers and, where business conditions allow, promote equitable access to remote and hybrid working (emphasising its importance for many disabled people), including through awareness campaigns targeting employers;

• Promote equitable access to remote and hybrid working through awareness campaigns targeting employers, focussing on the sectors, regions, and demographics where the prevalence of remote / hybrid working is lower, emphasising the importance of remote and hybrid working for many disabled people;

• Publish updated guidance on the different forms of home working, their implications for employers and best practice for managing hybrid and fully remote workers and promote management training;

• Conduct research to determine the extent to which remote / hybrid working has effects on employment levels and may help it reduce regional inequalities; and

• Collect and publish updated survey data on the extent to which employees who work from home have requested this arrangement, and if so, whether they did so informally or formally.

The report also recommends that the ONS should:

• Start collecting and publishing additional data on variable levels of hybrid working, in particular the number of days worked from home per week by hybrid workers; and

• Continue exploring ways to link employer and employee data on the relationship between home working and productivity.