Latest news with #hybridWorking
BBC News
29-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Civil Service: 'Not enough office space' if working from home ends
A return-to-office policy for the civil service would not be possible because there is no longer enough space to accommodate everyone, Stormont assembly members have been civil servants began working from home during the pandemic, a trend which has NI Civil Service (NICS) is in the process of reducing its office estate by 40% by selling buildings and ending Smyth, chief executive of construction and procurement delivery at the Department of Finance, said that four-year process was on track. She told Stormont's finance committee there was currently sufficient office space for civil servants but that would not be the case if there was a widespread return to office-based the policy was "everyone's coming back four days a week" then "we wouldn't have the space, we wouldn't have the physical accommodation to do that," she Smyth said a review of the NICS hybrid working and working-from-home policies is due to be published also revealed the sale of one of the biggest NICS offices had not been completed despite going sale agreed last Court in Belfast City Centre is the former HQ of the Department of Smyth said it would be put back on the market shortly and the current bidder remains also told assembly members a decision was expected by the end of July on whether Marlborough House in Craigavon would be 1970s office block is due to be vacated by civil servants and a listing could complicate efforts to find a new use for the site.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
UK employees work from home more than most global rivals, study finds
UK workers continue to work from home more than nearly any of their global counterparts more than five years after the pandemic first disrupted traditional office life, a study has found. UK employees now average 1.8 days a week of remote working, above the international average of 1.3 days, according to the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA), a worldwide poll of more than 16,000 full-time, university-educated workers across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa that began in July 2021. Hybrid working patterns – in which the week is split between the office and another remote location such as home – have become established as the dominant model in advanced economies for staff who are able to carry out their roles remotely. This is particularly true in English-speaking countries including the UK, US, Canada and Australia, according to the most recent G-SWA, which was conducted between November 2024 and February 2025. Conversely, such arrangements are rare in east Asia, where office-centric culture prevails, and most full-time workers in Japan and South Korea still commute daily to the office. The popularity of home working in the UK has previously been attributed to the cost and length of commuting, particularly in London and south-east England. 'This isn't just a post-pandemic hangover – British workers have clearly decided they're not going back to the old ways. Remote work has moved from being an emergency response to becoming a defining feature of the UK labour market,' said Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, a G-SWA co-founder and associate professor at King's College London. 'This shift is forcing businesses, policymakers, and city planners to reimagine everything from office space to transport to regional growth,' added Aksoy, who is also an associate research director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Despite the introduction of strict return-to-office mandates at a handful of large companies, including the retail company Amazon and the asset management firm BlackRock, home working levels have stabilised in the UK since 2023, in what the researchers called a 'labour market equilibrium'. Men and women work from home at similar rates in every leading region of the world, the study found, although the desire for home working is strongest among women with children. Parents surveyed said they were more likely to adopt hybrid work, while those without children prefer either fully office-based or fully remote working models. Younger respondents showed a stronger preference for working from the office, as a way to get noticed by senior colleagues, or to learn informally from their peers. 'Hybrid work is no longer the exception, it's the expectation,' Aksoy said, adding that the research had not found any strong evidence that remote work came at the cost of productivity for organisations. This could not, however, be said for fully remote roles. 'Its impact on productivity varies dramatically depending on the type of job and how it's managed,' Aksoy said. 'In many cases, fully remote roles are concentrated in call centres or data entry, jobs that are already under pressure from automation and AI.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The findings came as a separate poll from King's College found less than half (42%) of workers would comply with an employer's requirement for them to return to the office full-time, compared with 54% in early 2022. Women and parents were most likely to resist strict return mandates, researchers at the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's and its business school found. By late 2024, 55% of women said they would seek a new job if required to return to the office full-time. Researchers have previously suggested that some companies have issued strict return-to-office mandates as a way to shed excess staff hired under fully remote arrangements during the pandemic.
The Independent
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
How the rise in remote working could have a negative impact on UK growth
The working from home boom may be failing to revitalise struggling UK regions and could even exacerbate existing inequalities, according to new research. A study by researchers from several UK universities, including Southampton, St Andrews, Birmingham, De Montfort and University of Arts London, examined post-pandemic working habits and found that the anticipated boost to areas outside the south-east has failed to materialise. While the rise of remote work initially offered a glimmer of hope for a more level playing field, the reality is proving more complicated. The research reveals that most employees now favour hybrid working models, splitting their time between home and the office. This limits the potential for significant regional shifts, as high-skilled workers remain connected to their traditional workplaces. The data highlights a stark contrast in working patterns across the UK. More than half of all workers (52 per cent) never work from home. This figure drops dramatically for high-skilled workers, with only 29 per cent never working remotely. The majority of high-skilled workers who do work from home follow hybrid patterns, further solidifying the link to their physical workplace and potentially hindering the anticipated dispersal of economic activity to other regions. This suggests that working from home, in its current form, is not driving a relocation of high-skilled jobs to areas in need of an economic boost. Instead, it may be exacerbating existing regional divides. Professor Jackie Wahba, of the University of Southampton and the ESRC Centre for Population Change, said: 'Working from home is now a normal part of working life, with the potential to change where and how people work. 'It could offer major benefits, giving both employers and workers more choice and flexibility. But to achieve this, we must tackle key obstacles to residential mobility. 'It was widely believed that working from home would let high-skilled workers move further from their employers, opening up opportunities for less wealthy areas. 'But so far, it remains most common among higher earners in a few sectors, mostly near London and other major cities.' She added: 'There is also little evidence on the net economic impact for local areas of these changes in working patterns. We need better data on who is working from home, how often, and in what roles. 'This will help policymakers give targeted support to more regions. Investing in transport links, fast broadband, schools, healthcare, green spaces, cultural venues, and affordable housing are as important as providing flexible work options in drawing and retaining skilled workers. 'Working from home isn't yet bridging the gap between regions. Policymakers, businesses, and local leaders need to act to ensure that job flexibility does not exacerbate inequality but is harnessed to support real, long-term regional growth.' The research project, co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, analysed data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and Labour Force Survey. It also involved interviews with businesses, regional governments and universities in Glasgow, Sheffield and Birmingham. They found that in these 'second-tier regional cities', the advantages of working from home were seen as wider recruitment opportunities, more efficient use of office space, and the ability to attract workers to their regions because of lower living costs. However, they also raised concerns about quieter city centres, weaker workplace culture, and the limited ability to work from home in many sectors.
