Managing the work of less experienced employees and mental wellbeing are the main challenges facing mid-sized businesses that have implemented hybrid working.
Prior to the Omicron surge and Plan B, businesses in the UK had adopted hybrid working but many faced difficulties with its implementation.
New research on mid-market firms (turnover between £50m and £500m) from professional services firm Grant Thornton UK LLP found 88% of businesses were using a hybrid working system at the start of December.
Despite offices being reopened earlier this year, only 5% of the businesses surveyed were working full time in an office and only 6% were spending all their time working remotely, found the analysis published as part of Grant Thornton’s business outlook tracker.
Of the 531 businesses adopting hybrid working, most (64%) believed that it was working well for their business. However, a significant portion of the market were still adapting, with one in five (19%) not yet finding it effective.
The research found that the principal working style challenges for the next year, cited by those respondents who were adopting a hybrid working approach, were:
- Managing the work of more junior staff (39%)
- Mental wellbeing (37%)
- The provision of training remotely (37%)
- Having efficient technology to enable hybrid working (37%)
Hybrid working, however, was “here to stay”, said Dave Munton, head of UK markets and clients, Grant Thornton UK LLP, but needed commitment and time to be truly effective, as there was no one size fits all solution. He said: “The whole market is on a learning curve to experiment and find the best method that works for them and ensure their people continue to feel connected and supported by their business and their teams, wherever they work.
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“For example, while the office will remain the centre of gravity at Grant Thornton, how it’s used is changing, with a greater focus on activities that work less well in a remote setting such as onboarding, collaboration and networking.”
At the same time, businesses needed to understand that how offices were now being used was not set in stone. “Businesses need to be open to evolving their approach by continuing to listen to their people and challenging themselves as to how it can be made more effective – for example investing in technology to support and better connect a hybrid workforce and providing guidance on how team’s co-ordinate time in the office so more junior members know when in-person support will be available.”
Munton said that with government guidance continuing to change, increasing uncertainty from the new Omicron variant and many businesses still only formulating or starting to cement their new working approach, confidence was likely to waver in the market.
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“But this uncertainty in the external environment is not likely to change. Businesses need to ensure flexibility in their approach which allows them to respond quickly and be ready to revert to remote working as needed, in line with changing guidance – as it did this week.”
