Nine out of ten employees who have worked at home during lockdown would like to continue doing so in some capacity, research suggests. The report, by academics at Cardiff University and the University of Southampton, presents the first analysis of employee survey data focusing on homeworking, which was gathered for the Understanding Society Covid-19 Study.
According to the report, Homeworking in the UK: Before and during the 2020 lockdown, remote working has rocketed since the start of lockdown – rising from 6 percent of employees before the pandemic to 43 percent in April this year. The results also indicate productivity among the majority of those working from home during lockdown remained stable or even improved, compared to six months before.
Professor Alan Felstead, based at Cardiff University and the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD), said: “For many years, homeworking has been growing slowly, but since the onset of the pandemic, it is now commonplace. Our analysis suggests there will be a major shift away from the traditional workplace, even when social distancing is no longer a requirement.”
Findings for the report are based on three online surveys of workers carried out towards the end of April, May and June 2020. Each survey questioned a representative sample of 6,000-7,000 workers who had worked at least one hour in the week before interview and provided information on where they worked either side of the lockdown.
The results of the June 2020 survey suggest that 88 percent of employees who worked at home during lockdown would like to continue working at home in some capacity, with around one in two (47 percent) employees wanting to work at home often or all of the time.