The New Normal: Balancing Home and Office Working

The Covid-19 pandemic has created the opportunity for many employees to work from any location. This presents challenges for both employees and employers in deciding what the new workplace will look like going forward. Over the last 18 months, many businesses have found that employees working remotely can be just as productive as them being in the office.

In this blog, our Co-Founder & Managing Director, Wojciech Dochan, shares his thoughts on the balance between home and office working.

Initially, many businesses were reluctant to move to these hybrid-working arrangements. However, as the months progressed and Britain moved from one lockdown to another, employers had to adopt more flexible working arrangements. Many offices developed hybrid work arrangements such as two days remote working and three days in the office. The degree of flexibility for different companies will, however, depend on people's roles and whether they need to be in a specific physical location.

Many service-based companies can adopt flexible working arrangements. The chief aim for the businesses is to increase both productivity and quality of work, by supporting employee wellbeing and motivation.

A recent survey for the BBC has found that 79% of senior business leaders and 70% of the public believe that people will not return to offices at the same rate as before the pandemic, with many workers saying that they would prefer to work from home either full-time or at least some of the time.

Businesses and employees must learn how to work more effectively in these changed circumstances, adapting and embracing different work patterns in the process. New challenges have arisen with the rise of hybrid working, such as how best to organise office working so that work teams can agree on common workdays, which will enable face-to-face contact and ensure that in-person mentoring still occurs regularly. Businesses need to ensure that creativity and the generation of ideas still flourishes, and often that only occurs through close interactions.

While hybrid working does present challenges, employers have responded well throughout the pandemic, adapting their hours to fit the work needs. This change is positively impacting employees, as they have more quality time to spend with family members. Time spent with family was found to be one of the biggest drivers behind employees not wanting to go back to the office full-time in the BBC survey.

These hybrid-working styles positively impact loyalty and staff retention for business owners, which is particularly important given the tight labour market that now exists following the restrictions resulting from Brexit.

As a business leader, for me, it is all about adapting the business to drive better results. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for many businesses to review their way of working, to ensure that the business is resilient to future shocks that will no doubt happen.

At Bravo Benefits, we are committed to providing the reassurance of protection for your business and its employees, sourcing solutions that will enable you get on with the everyday running of your business.Wojciech DochanCo-Founder & Managing DirectorBravo Benefits