Home-based working: submission of evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee

This submission of evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee details the evidence around the impact of the significant increase in home-based working since the Covid-19 pandemic, in the contexts of labour market participation, skills and career development, work-life balance and productivity and organisational effectiveness. In addition a number of recommendations around how remote and hybrid working options can be used most effectively by employers are included.

The rise in homeworking prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic led to major change in attitudes, practices and policy in work and employment. Remote working is not a new phenomenon and, although the term ‘hybrid working’ is new, virtual teams have always existed as a continuum, often merging face-to-face with remote or ‘virtual’ working, and with some teams being more virtual and others being more face-to-face.

It is the scale of change that has been unprecedented. Research clearly evidences that the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions disrupted norms around in-office working and led to a permanent shift in employee preferences towards hybrid working.

Current debates on working from home (WFH) and the return to the office (RTO) have become somewhat polarised and frequently dominated by polemic. An evidence-based approach will help enable the government, employers and other actors to cut through the noise and understand how best to maximise the benefits and mitigate or manage the risks or challenges. In general, however, an increased level of remote and hybrid working seems here to stay, as the opportunities for it have become apparent since the COVID-19 lockdowns and it has become a central part of many workers’ expectations.