I am submitting evidence, as due to my personal circumstances, I have a very passionate view on WFH/Hybrid working. My son has special needs, and due to this there is no available childcare (including after school clubs) available for him. Therefore hybrid working has become essential for both myself and my wife.
Questions
Workers and employers
1. What are the challenges and opportunities of remote and hybrid working for workers? To what extent do these vary depending on the worker’s characteristics, such as their job role, gender, race, age, disability, income, educational background, carer/parental status and living situation?
Challenges:
- For fully remote roles, there may be challenges around helping new starters (especially younger ones straight out of school/university) get settled and trained up.
- For fully remote roles, if there is no daily engagement with other staff, potential for it to feel lonely
- For hybrid roles, there is too much focus on employees having to meet set office attendance requirements, rather than focus on where/when the office may be a more suitable environment. This in turn makes employees fell less trusted.
Opportunities:
- Reduced costs and time saved by reduced/no commuting
- The above frees up the roads and reduces crowding for public transport
- Able to better focus without constant distractions from other staff
- Easier to hold Teams/Zoom meetings, as the home environment will normally be quieter
- For parents who have limited/no childcare available, opportunity to still work
2. What is the impact of remote and hybrid working on individual physical and mental health? How does this impact and the steps taken to manage it compare to traditional site-based work?
This has been a very positive impact. The removal of commuting time means more opportunity for physical activity at the start or end of day, which is a benefit to physical health. Mental health could also potentially be improved if you do not like being around other certain coworkers.
As per above question, for fully remote works there may be a risk of loneliness if there is little contact with other coworkers or you have a reduced social circle outside of work.
3. What are the challenges and opportunities of remote and hybrid working for employers, including concerning recruitment and retention, the potential for collaboration and creativity, management, worker attitudes and expectations, and use of office space?
Challenges:
- There may be more of a need to “plan” time for collaboration or creativity meetings, instead of it being potentially more instant in an office.
Opportunities:
- Opportunity to recruit from a wider geographical area, instead of just an area that is commutable for full/near full-time onsite jobs
- Overall happier staff, which in turn reduces turnover/costs for companies
- Staff are less likely to take sick days, as there may be some days where staff don’t feel well enough to commute in but might feel ok to WFH
- If someone’s child is unwell, a parent can still do some work instead of having to take the whole day off
- Potential for improved productivity, as staff have fewer distractions. Additionally, staff may be happier to put in more overtime when working from home compared with in the office
- More modern management style which focuses on outcomes, rather than “bums in seats”
- Reduced office costs for companies due to less office space needed
4. To what extent do the challenges and opportunities of remote and hybrid working vary depending on the nature of the employer, for example its size, sector, organisational capabilities, and geographical location?
My experience is working in the financial sector so WFH/hybrid can be quite easily implemented. Technology can play an impact – e.g. ensuring staff have the right equipment or ensuring sufficient Citrix performance. It is also important for staff to be able to get the most out of technology available (e.g. Teams), so more IT training may be needed if there are lot of older staff in an organisation.
For other sectors which are more creative (e.g. advertising) it is understandable that in general higher office attendance may be beneficial, as there is often more close collaboration required.
5. How can employer and worker needs be balanced within the context of remote and hybrid working, to ensure mutually beneficial employment arrangements?
CEOs need to stop coming up with one size fits all office requirements (e.g. blanket 3 days per week requirements). Whilst it may still be good to have some parameters (e.g. 1 to 3 days/week) to ensure fairness, ultimately managers are in a far better position to choose a policy that works best for their own teams. Where there may be benefits to office attendance, this will often vary between roles and between weeks.
Most crucially, there needs to be engagement with staff around office requirements, rather than CEOs/senior management thinking they know best.
For staff who are experienced and have a very high degree of autonomy in their role, companies should also be more open to allowing these staff to be fully remote.
6. What is your view on why some employers have implemented back-to-office mandates, while others continue to support hybrid or remote working?
- In some cases, RTO is used as a way to reduce staff numbers instead of following the traditional redundancy approach
- Concerns over office occupancy levels, especially for companies that own their offices
- Old style senior management which still believes in the need to be constantly looking over the shoulders of staff, instead of trusting them to complete work as required
- Bosses who miss some kind of old style “buzz” to the office
I would also note that, whenever CEOs announce RTO mandates, they are never able to actually quantify productivity impacts from WFH. So many times the reason appears to read as “gut feel” and this then further erodes trust from employees.
Productivity and wider consequences
7. What is the impact of remote and hybrid working on individual, organisational and national productivity and resilience? How can the productivity impact of remote and hybrid working be more accurately measured and defined so that meaningful comparisons can be made between different organisations?
For a long time, many companies have already used software (e.g. from ActiveOps) to track progress of items. As long as staff are aware of the requirements and are keeping up good communication, then WFH should not be impacting on day to day productivity.
However in terms of training, there is potential for this to be harder (and potentially to take longer) when WFH/hybrid if not managed correctly, so this could have a minor impact.
Ultimately, staff should be set appropriate levels of work in a timescale which managers believe can be achieved, and this is what should be measured.
WFH enables more resilience – e.g. if there is an issue with systems in the office or issues with physical access, then staff can easily just WFH
8. What, if anything, is the impact of remote and hybrid working on the UK’s economic growth and international competitiveness?
The overall economic impact should be negligible. Ultimately, if employees can save money from reduced commuting then they can spend those savings elsewhere – either big ticket items, or spending more in their local shops/pubs/restaurants/etc.
It should be noted that, if more companies embraced fully remote working this could potentially have a very positive impact on poorer communities as it effectively increases the employment opportunities for those areas.
9. Are there any other wider consequences of remote and hybrid working that you would identify, at the local, regional and national level? In particular, is there an impact on regional disparities within the UK, unemployment, development of skills, habits of socialising, or the environment?
- There has been a noticeable impact of house prices – e.g. house prices have risen faster in rural areas than in cities.
- Where employees are doing less commuting, this potentially opens up more opportunities for online learning/upskilling
- People feel a little closer to their communities, e.g. from seeing their neighbours more
I would also note that, the media often mentions less business for cafes/bars in city centres as a negative to WFH. However, there should be more mention on the opportunities for increased customers for businesses near people homes.
Policy recommendations
14. What is the appropriate role for the UK Government in addressing and researching the challenges and opportunities of remote and hybrid working, bearing in mind that they are evolving and impacted by technological change?
In general the government should continue to monitor the impacts both positive and negative. More specifically though, some of the mainstream media seem to have an obsession with bashing civil servants who WFH. Where there have been supposed cases of the odd civil servant not pulling their weight, the government should be remining the media that it is ultimately a management issue, not where someone works.
15. What, if any, are the key policy and/or legislative changes the UK Government should make in this area? Where remote and hybrid working is appropriate, what can the UK Government do to facilitate good practices in the workplace?
Employees should have the right to WFH, either fully remote or their own set number of days if they can be trusted and it is possible to accommodate.
Additionally, legislation could also be improved in relation to the advertising of hybrid jobs. If a company’s policy is 4 days per week in the office, should that really be classed as “hybrid”? In my view a role should only be advertised as hybrid if the office requirement is 3 days per week/60% or less.
16. To what extent can trends or policies on remote and hybrid working help the Government to address other policy objectives, such as boosting economic growth, tackling regional disparities, encouraging the economically inactive into employment, or net zero?
Improved rights to WFH are vital in encouraging the economically inactive back into work, and as per above could be really beneficial to deprived areas. Fewer cars on the road will help reduce congestion and improve air quality.
24 April 2025