When it comes to flexible working, we’re entering a new dawn. Whereas bosses might have been cynical about the success of staff working from home, the pandemic has taught us that home working can work well and we can stay just as connected.
Liam Daly, Senior Consultant in Spinnaker’s technical maritime recruitment team, has definitely noticed an increase in candidates wanting to work from home permanently.
“This increase has been particularly noted in the past 6 months,” says Daly (funnily enough speaking from Spinnaker’s offices where he has been working in 2021, eschewing the remote working option himself). “Which makes sense as people settled into home working over a longer period than anyone expected.”
“I decided to do a LinkedIn poll to see if, given the choice, people would want to work fully at home once the restrictions fully lift – something we’re attempting here in the UK. The results definitely backed up what I’ve been hearing from my candidates.”
Only 11% of people who answered the poll said they wanted a full return to the office with no working from home at all, with a day or two at home being the much more preferred option with 37% saying that’s what they would ideally want.
A quarter of those asked said they would work from home all the time.
One LinkedIn contact said of the poll “I think there needs to be a bit of diversity and inclusion thinking here. Not everyone feels or works best in an office environment, not everyone clamours for face-to-face contact. If you find home working more productive, if you feel Zoom/Teams meetings are in fact better for you and more democratic and can demonstrate that you have delivered the same or better results while working from home, then the full WFH option is a valid request. Employers may be missing out on great talent if you feel you need to instil a 9-5 mentality.”
However another commented “In-person communication and exchange should not cease to exist since all human relationships are based on one and only one quality: trust. Trust is built when interacting in person, only. It can’t be built via Teams or Skype.”
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