Half of UK senior HRs no longer expect employees back five days a week

A new study of more than 500 senior HR professionals in the UK has shown that nearly half (53%) will no longer require employees to come into the office five days a week, instead allowing them to work from home or remotely.

More than one in 10 (14%) went as far as to say they will not require employees to visit the office at all, while 30% expected them in between one to three days.

According to Applaud which commissioned the YouGov research, one quarter (26%) of UK businesses are now set to close, downsize or consolidate their offices post pandemic as a result.

Nearly half (44%) also admitted their HR department was not equipped to deal with remote working during the early stages of the pandemic, with 43% having invested over the past few months in their HR teams to improve the situation.

More than a third (35%) are planning to develop an employee engagement role distinct from traditional HR to support staff engagement and improve employee experience remotely.

Sitting alongside this significant HR investment, respondents also revealed that they want to spend significant resources rewarding employees as the damage of the pandemic looks to soften.

Nearly a fifth (18%) revealed they are looking to give employees better pay and or promotions in the coming months while 46% will implement better remote working tools to ensure continued engagement and productivity in a remote working future.

Duncan Casemore, Co-founder and CTO, Applaud said: “When it comes to the way we work, organisations are embarking on an era of unprecedented change. Driven by employee experience, business leaders are turning away from the traditional five days in the office format, instead moving to provide more productive flexible and remote working scenarios.

“While there has been great clamour from the workforce to implement more flexibility in the way we work, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided the catalyst to initiate these changes. To ensure employees remain productive while remote working, organisations must continue to invest in the HR technologies that offer a consumer-grade worker experience, and which keep remote employees motivated and happy.”

Reflecting on the changing work environment of the future, Aaron Alburey, Managing Director and Co-founder of LACE Partners said “People leaders in organisations now face a significant challenge, how to retain the benefits of remote working whilst offering a return to the office.

“CPOs need to focus on refining policies, retraining Line Managers to avoid bias towards face to face, avoiding accidental exclusion of home workers, and to create an experience that encompasses both those at home and in the office.”

Founded and headquartered in Nottingham, ENSEK’s business-critical technology is used by the world’s leading energy suppliers to achieve their digital transformation and long-term environmental goals. Mel Joy, Chief People Officer at ENSEK said: “Our headcount has actually increased by 100% over the past couple of years, and a large number of those employees have been hired throughout the pandemic, internationally, and in remote working situations.

“Our business is growing rapidly and, with a dispersed workforce, scaling a company culture sustainably is no mean feat – but is something we’re incredibly passionate about getting right.”

“We’ve invested heavily in our people team, and have doubled the function in the past two months alone as we tackle this head on. We’ve instated ‘Culture Champions’ across the company, who act as a living example of our values, and will be pivotal in driving the company forwards with its core ethos and purpose.

“We’ve opened up a larger, brand-new office space in the heart of Nottingham where our people can collaborate and meet, and our employees will have the option of hybrid working, allowing them greater flexibility on where they work.”

Robert Bainbridge, Peak’s Chief People Officer on its office redesign: “This last year has blown the concept of traditional workplaces as we know it – forever. It was a catalyst to unlearn the old ways of thinking, working and the role that our workspaces play in the day-to-day running of a business. We wanted to create a space that invokes the freedom of travel, stimulates the imagination and creates an inspirational space to grow and nurture our unique Peak culture.”

“Getting our team’s input into the redesign of our workspace was invaluable in achieving a balance between the best of remote work and the best of the workplace. This meant we had to break down the conventional rules of an office, by ripping out the ‘OG desk’.

“The team have instead reimagined a space, themed around nature, that enables us to create a vibrant Peak community. The space offers different environments for different phases of work – like cocoons for periods of deep concentration or stimuli-filled social co-working spaces.”