After a study surveying 2,000 employers, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has suggested that many organisations should consider solidifying many work-from-home policies previously enacted simply as a matter of necessity during the pandemic – as, in the longer term, there could be meaningful productivity gains to be made.
According to the survey, the usual benefits of home-working have seemingly increased during the pandemic, culminating in a “significant” increase in productivity, or so the research suggests. Going forward, these findings could have major implications for various firms – and not just while local COVID-19 infection levels continue to be a concern.
How can companies make a success of hybrid working?
Claire McCartney of the CIPD has observed, as ITV News quotes: “The pandemic has shown that ways of working that previously seemed impossible are actually possible.
“Organisations should take stock and carefully consider how to make hybrid working a success, rather than rushing people back to their workplace when there are clearly productivity benefits to home-working.” Indeed, two-thirds of the survey respondents said they planned to introduce or expand hybrid working.
McCartney continued: “To make hybrid working a success in the long term, employers need to implement a strategy that focuses on wellbeing, communication and collaboration to recognise people’s individual preferences.”
Employers could do this through, for example, setting up a cloud contact centre. With Gamma’s Horizon Contact solution, customer service agents could log into the centre from a wide range of internet-connected devices, including those at the usual office and others at the agent’s home.
As a result, these workers can, whether they are at home or the traditional workplace, respond just as effectively to customer queries without any compromise in the quality of the customer’s own experience.
How is the work-from-home situation faring in the United States?
On the other side of the Atlantic, the continued following of work-from-home practices is forecast to boost the US economy’s productivity by 5%, Bloomberg reports. This figure has been gleaned from research that polled over 30,000 US workers to judge whether home-working is set to stay beyond the pandemic.
“Our data on employer plans and the relative productivity of WFH imply a 5% productivity boost in the post-pandemic economy due to re-optimised working arrangements,” the study notes. “Only one-fifth of this productivity gain will show up in conventional productivity measures, because they do not capture the time savings from less commuting.”
Research heavily suggests that technological innovations and investments have played a major part in fostering stronger-than-expected productivity in US workers during the pandemic. Research elsewhere, meanwhile, has hinted that over one in five company executives expect to reduce their office space in 2021 as the recent transition to virtual and remote operations takes hold permanently.
Therefore, if you anticipate setting up your own business soon, you can look forward to potentially making large financial savings on office space you might see the need to rent for your team – however many members of this team ultimately end up using this space at any given time.