Jun 9th, 2021
8 mins
Barbour have produced some comprehensive information on how ‘hybrid working’ or ‘blended working’ is now common place as we move out of the lockdown period.
Download your copy of Hybrid Working
The imposition of lockdown measures across the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020 as a means to control the spread of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) resulted in people being ordered to stay at home, with all non-essential high street businesses closed and people only allowed outside their home for essential reasons. Restrictions on movement were subsequently eased, and then re-imposed, in an attempt to combat the resurgence of the virus and to tackle the emergence of new variants. Whilst there was some variation in both lockdown dates and periods between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it remains the case that from late March 2020 people were asked to work from
home wherever possible and it is predicted that this advice will remain in force until at least 21 June, 2021 in England.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in April 2020, nearly half (46.6%) of people in employment in the UK did some of their work from home, with the vast majority (86.0%) of these homeworkers stating that this was because of the Coronavirus pandemic. For many businesses the use of email, social media and cloud based video-conferencing services such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack became the new means of communicating with staff and conducting meetings, combined with the use of document management and storage systems such as Sharepoint.
Some businesses had adopted hybrid working pre-pandemic and IWG’s 2019 Global Workplace Survey (that questioned 15,000 professionals in 80 countries) identified that over 50% of employees globally were working outside their main office HQ for at least 2.5 days per week, with 85% of survey respondents reporting that their business’ productivity had increased as a result of their offering greater flexibility. Some 80% of respondents reported that when faced with two similar employment offers they would turn down the one that didn’t offer flexible working. For organisations in the UK, 73% of respondents saw flexible working as the ‘new normal’ – slightly below the global average of 75%. The results of the 2020 survey are awaited, but it is evident that hybrid working as a form of flexible working is here to stay. If hybrid working is properly organised, supported and resourced, it can offer the desired mix of quiet time for project and reflective work, combined with in-office time that allows for face to face social interaction that in turn supports creativity and collaboration. When people are working remotely they can be at risk of poor mental health as a result of feelings of loneliness, isolation and lost social identity, so hybrid working is seen as potentially delivering the best of both worlds – solo working and collaborative working.
The 18 page guide produced by Barbour covers everything from Legal Requirements, The Merits and Challenges of
Hybrid Working, to Assessing the Suitability of Roles for Hybrid Working and links for further information.
Post-pandemic hybrid working is a new initiative and resources are therefore continually evolving. Barbour will list all the key resources on this topic as they develop. Currently these include:
ACAS: Checklist for Home Working 2015
Barbour: Barbour Guide: Homeworking – Barbour
CIPD:
- Embedding New Ways of Working: Implications for the Post-pandemic Workplace: September 2020
- Planning for Hybrid Working, March 2021
- Flexible Working: Lessons from the Pandemic, April 2021
- Flexible Working, Lessons from the Pandemic: from the ‘Nature’ of the Work to the Design of Work: Guide for Line Managers, April 2021
- Flexible Working, Lessons from the Pandemic: from the ‘Nature’ of the Work to the Design of Work: Case Studies, April 2021
- Flexible Working Practices, April 2021
- Line Manager Guide on Supporting Hybrid Working, May 2021
- Assessing a Role for Hybrid Working Flow Chart, May 2021
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ireland): Introduction of a Right to Request Remote Working – Public Consultation, April 2021
Further References
- Covid-19 (Coronavirus) business support, Gov.UK
- IWG Global Workplace Survey, 2019
- Employers Aim for Hybrid Working after Covid-19 Pandemic, Financial Times, 28 February 2021
Government guidance on working safely during Coronavirus for:
- Code of Practice 5: Code of Practice on Handling in a Reasonable Manner Requests to Work Flexibly, ACAS, June 2014
- Flexible Working Northern Ireland Direct Government Services
- Flexible Working Great Britain
- What is a hybrid work model and how do we make it work? Hailley Griffis, April 2021
References: (1) How working from home works out, SIEPR Policy brief June 2020, Professor N Bloom
Date of Issue: May 2021
