A survey given to the BBC indicated that ‘84% of managers said their firms had adopted hybrid working and two-thirds said this had been prompted by the Covid pandemic’.
But what is hybrid?
ACAS defines this as ‘a type of flexible working where an employee splits their time between the workplace & remote working’. There was, and still is a lot of negative stigma surrounding work from home, but data collected during the pandemic suggests that productivity was not adversely affected by WFH. At Stopgap, like many other digital marketing recruitment agencies in London, we have adopted the 3:2 working model. Our Head of Marketing Tom sparked a discussion about hybrid working in London, with an overall response stating flexible, hybrid working is a really nice balance. We’ve also started to list our jobs with "Office/Hybrid /Remote" categorisation to make it easier for job searchers to find their ideal new role!
“Back in the office 2 days a week and it's been great, nice to be in a buzzy environment and discover new places to eat around the office!” Lucky Singh, Client Relationship Manager at King’s Business School.
In the height of COVID-19, office space was no longer a necessity, with many big London firms cutting back on workspace. With less people in London, and less commuters, the need for large, central offices was no more. Even post-covid, transport services have stopped running as many trains.
However, some say the uptake of new and returning offices are actually getting busier, as ‘70% of London based office workers have already returned to their workplace for at least one day a week’. In fact, Google have spent $1bn (£730m) purchasing a brand new London office building, in a bid to encourage a return to physical workplaces. But, data from the Office of National Statistics has shown that it’s actually the Londoners who are the slowest to make a return to the workplace, with only 18-20% in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North East still shunning the office return.
Hybrid-remote working is a new concept, largely influenced by the effects of the last few years. The suggestion is, that workers are fully remote, until they are required to visit the office for a large company meeting or a work event. It allows complete flexibility without lacking productivity, and seems to be the way forward for many companies. LinkedIn News suggested that ‘one in 10 jobs in the UK were advertised as “entirely remote working” in January, with 74% of those roles paying above the average annual salary of £31,000’.
So what is the way forward? It seems dependant on company, location, and culture. The only thing we do know is that hybrid is here to stay. If you’re looking for a new job, here’s our latest hybrid roles.
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