New research shines light on future of work and working from home

Seven in 10 (73%) workers would prefer to work from home some of the time according to a new report.

"Working Under COVID-19 Lockdown: Transitions and Tensions" looks at how organisations and workforces adapted and learned from working from home under the initial lockdown as part of a longitudinal eighteen-month study.

The cross-institutional project, Work After Lockdown is led by Dr. Jane Parry, Director of the Centre for Research on Work and Organisations at Southampton Business School, University of Southampton in partnership with Dr. Zoe Young of work design specialists, Half the Sky and Professor Stephen Bevan Institute for Employment Studies (IES). The project is funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the UK Research & Innovation's rapid response to COVID-19.

The project focuses on two sectors—those who work in local government and the legal profession. Workers from both sectors have shown they are highly adaptable in these unusual times as the report finds that:

• Nine out of 10 (88.5%) employees felt that they had got more work done or as much done as in the office;
• Six out of 10 (64%) workers rated the ability to work flexibly as the best feature of working from home;
• Eight out of 10 workers (82%) miss the informal contact with their colleagues that the pressure of working from home has squeezed—it's this 'social deficit' that workers feel is the worst aspect of working from home;
• Also of concern is that maintaining this high productivity during the pandemic takes its toll, with responses on mental health ranking at 47 out of 100 which is low as measured by the WHO5 global standard.