{"id":19357,"date":"2021-03-17T10:17:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T10:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/?p=19357"},"modified":"2021-03-17T10:49:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T10:49:47","slug":"return-to-work-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/blog\/return-to-work-report\/","title":{"rendered":"British workforce is disconnected and lonely &#8211; yet majority want to continue WFH in some capacity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone should be able to progress their skills and knowledge so they can reach greater heights professionally! That\u2019s been part of the HowNow philosophy from the start, and we\u2019ve been able to help thousands of people do just that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For many L&amp;D teams, that development became a lot more challenging when we found ourselves facing a global pandemic. As the one-year anniversary of the British workforce\u2019s mass move to a new work from home system approached, we wanted to see how employees have found WFH, how they view a potential return to the office now restrictions are easing, and the toll it\u2019s taken on their progress too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The remote worker view on working from home<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We commissioned a survey of 3,000 remote workers from across the UK, and discovered the following insights on WFH:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than two thirds (67%) of workers in the UK feel \u2018disconnected\u2019 from their colleagues.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two fifths (42%) feel \u2018lonely\u2019 at work.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four fifths (80%) have spoken to their manager just once in the last 10 days.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Half (49%) admit this is having a negative impact on how they view their job.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A third (32%) say it\u2019s having a negative impact on their mental health.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These results paint a worrying picture when you consider how important support and engagement is for employee happiness, and the wider impact being unhappy at work has on a person\u2019s wellbeing in other areas of their life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The remote worker view on returning to the office<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same survey also gave us these insights on the impending return to the office:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three quarters (77%) of respondents stated they were \u2018nervous\u2019 about returning to the office.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When asked why they were feeling nervous about returning to the office:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two fifths (39%) of the people we spoke to are nervous to interact with colleagues again in person .<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Less than a third (31%) are worried about commuting.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A fifth (19%) are concerned about their physical appearance.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com\/cms\/api\/am\/binary\/RWxzz5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report<\/a> from Microsoft Surface and YouGov at the beginning of 2021 discovered that more than four fifths (87%) of employees are working in a hybrid remote working system, and our survey results revealed that the majority of remote workers (79%) would prefer to continue doing so, with just 5% answering they\u2019d like to return to a work space full time. Other insights include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ideal setup for the majority of employees (71%) is three days in the office and two days WFH.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mondays and Fridays were the most popular days to WFH, receiving 69% and 84% of votes, respectively.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As part of our survey, we also asked respondents what they thought could be done in order to help remote workers with the transition back into the office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than two thirds (68%) said that a staggered approach, with selected days in the office and others at home, would most help.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A fifth (21%) stated that regular virtual social catch-ups prior to a return to the office would be most beneficial for them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you consider that the majority of remote workers report a negative experience of working from home over the last 12 months, in terms of how it\u2019s made them feel and how they view their job, these numbers are very interesting. However, many are apprehensive about returning to a communal work environment, and the majority want to adopt a flexible remote working system in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This creates both a problem and opportunity for employers to learn from the last 12 months of remote working, and adopt a flexible remote system that will keep employees happy and thriving moving forward. The key is listening to their experiences and ensuring a workforce is feeling supported and involved in regular communication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-19361 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Machinery-and-transport-equipment-was-the-next-largest-category-where-Mexico-Costa-Rica-and-Brazil-accounted-for-over-90-of-the-total-in-this-category.-410x1024.png\" alt=\"The British Return To Work Report\" width=\"410\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Machinery-and-transport-equipment-was-the-next-largest-category-where-Mexico-Costa-Rica-and-Brazil-accounted-for-over-90-of-the-total-in-this-category.-410x1024.png 410w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Machinery-and-transport-equipment-was-the-next-largest-category-where-Mexico-Costa-Rica-and-Brazil-accounted-for-over-90-of-the-total-in-this-category.-120x300.png 120w, https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Machinery-and-transport-equipment-was-the-next-largest-category-where-Mexico-Costa-Rica-and-Brazil-accounted-for-over-90-of-the-total-in-this-category..png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nelson Sivalingam, CEO and Co-Founder of HowNow, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;At HowNow, our mission has always been to give people the right skills, knowledge and mindset to succeed in their role and career. However, with the UK reaching a full-year of working from home and office returns creeping onto the horizon, those three things are bound to have been affected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That&#8217;s why we decided to commission this survey, to get a true feel for how employees view the WFH anniversary and eventual return to the office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And what should give leaders hope is that the two key themes are issues they can tackle right now. Currently, a lot of people are feeling disconnected from colleagues and looking ahead, there are understandable concerns about returning to &#8216;normality&#8217;.\u00a0 From introducing virtual socials for this final stretch to managing the office return, now is the perfect moment to evaluate and take action.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone should be able to progress their skills and knowledge so they can reach greater&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":19359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3118],"tags":[1599],"yst_prominent_words":[1616,1289,1687,1285,1284],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19357"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19363,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19357\/revisions\/19363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19357"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}