60% of organisations will remain in remote-working mode

Following the easing of lockdown measures, organisations face the question whether to return to office-based working or not.

Baringa research reveals that for more than 60% of organisations, remote working will remain in place until at least the end of 2020. Those that have re-opened their offices have taken steps to reduce the number of staff present at any given time with measures ranging from introducing shift-patterns to restricting access to the office to critical staff only. Over one-third of organisations have made significant investments over the last months into technology to enable or improve remote working, and 40% have made significant adaptations to their office environment.

Different models of remote working and hybrid workforce-models, where part of the staff work remotely whilst others are in the office, are here to stay. What was quickly arranged over the last months will now need to be reviewed, fine-tuned, and set up to succeed in the long term. Challenges such as workforce-productivity, tooling, security, and physical and mental wellbeing need to be addressed. On the other hand, now is the time to set ambitious targets to grasp opportunities from remote working such as potential cost-benefits from a reduction of office space, access to new talent pools without geographic limitations, and flexible working patterns that allow a matching of customer demand and supply.

Read more about the results of our research on how organisations are planning their return to the office by downloading the infographic below, and contact Rob Maguire, Verity Harrison, or Kieran Pun to explore the challenges and opportunities of the ‘new normal’.

Research methodology: the survey was conducted amongst Baringa Partners, Directors and Senior Managers, who recorded the intentions of their clients to return to the office. The research took part in July 2020. The results represent 56 organisations across the financial services, energy, telco, government, life sciences and consumer products sectors.