Happy At Home - Employees Want to Keep Working from Home Post-Pandemic
Chartered Management Institute
3 min read
New poll suggests five days in the office a “thing of the past”
The majority of those who are currently homeworking intend to make it a permanent part of their weekly routine, according to the ‘Working At Home’ survey of managers by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
As the Government begins to ease restrictions on returning to the workplace for those in England, 75% of managers currently working from home want to remain working from home in some form post-pandemic. 59% of managers want to work from home a couple of days a week, making home working a significant feature of the UK’s ‘new normal’.
The survey, conducted using Engaging Works’ ‘Workplace Happiness Survey’, also shows that since January 2020, overall workplace happiness has increased across all managers, regardless of whether they are working from home or in the workplace. On a scale of 0 to 100, managers reported:
- an overall Happiness score of 72;
- an Empowerment score of 74;
- an Instilling Pride score of 74;
- a Job Satisfaction score of 73.
Among managers who were working from home, those with caring responsibilities were significantly more likely to want to continue working from home. 64% of managers with children expressed a desire to work remotely for a couple of days each week compared to 57% of managers home working without caring responsibilities.
21% of home working managers expressed a desire to return to their place of work. This may be attributable to those who miss the opportunity for workplace social networking and the irregular working hours associated with home working - both of which scored low on the happiness index (52 and 53 out of 100 respectively).
Ann Francke, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), said:
“The traditional idea of a five-day office working week is a thing of the past, and businesses will need to rebuild with this in mind.”
“The pandemic has forced a dramatic shift in working practices. Companies have moved to digital and remote methods of collaborating and communicating at record pace. It’s encouraging to see managers’ wider acceptance of working from home, and the positive impact this can have on their job satisfaction and empowerment. Little wonder most want to keep this up longer term.”
Comment from Engaging Works Founder, Lord Mark Price:
“Over the last eight weeks businesses and employees have had to transform how they work, it’s been a big upheaval which can have knock on effects with performance and happiness levels. A workforce which is happy and engaged is likely to be 20% more commercially successful compared to teams with unhappy employees. Video conferencing is uniting work forces in an unprecedented way, resulting in employers re-evaluating the need for costly offices. If employers can ensure that employees are happy and productive when working from home, then the need for teams to be physically together becomes unnecessary.”
The Working At Home Survey by Engaging Works can be quickly tailored to organisations and can include questions from the current Engaging Works Workplace Happiness Survey. The results will provide useful data and insights to help organisations maintain a remote but happy and engaged workforce. Questions in the survey include asking if employees feel that they are trusted to make decisions from home, have all the information they need, and if they are happy with the environment they work in.
