A survey of managers for the Chartered Institute of Management found that working from home for part of the week has become the norm for some employees.

The survey polled 1,237 managers, with 41% working in the private sector and 59% in the public and non-profit sectors, 80% of which said their firms had adopted hybrid working and this had predominantly been since the pandemic.

However, this is not to say that employees will be permanently working from home all of the time, with firms being encouraged to embrace hybrid working as best practice. The survey found that hybrid working has resulted in an uptick in productivity and company results and that employees should use coming into the office as an opportunity to do those tasks that are difficult to do remotely.

The survey also found that senior leaders are actively encouraging employees to return to the workplace, with most firms offering staff the flexibility to choose which days they come into the office.

With hybrid working here to stay, employers will need to take into account:

• Putting in place a hybrid working policy to manage hybrid working and set expectations across the workforce.
• Planning for an increase in requests for a permanent change to employees’ terms of employment through statutory flexible working requests.
• Considering confidentiality and GDPR when employees are working from home and whether any additional measures are needed.
• Setting up additional training for managers in managing remote employees.
• Ensuring health and wellbeing safeguards are in place for employees working remotely.
• Reviewing insurance policies provide appropriate cover. 

Ultimately, this survey shows that the pandemic has permanently changed our view of how and where we work and in order to reap the benefits of this, employers must be proactive with how they deal with this change. It has opened up the pool for talent and created a focus on productivity rather than location, which can only be good for business in the long term.