Office working should be ‘default’, Chancellor says
The Chancellor has said the “default” location for workers should be in the office, unless there is a good reason to work remotely or in a hybrid pattern. Jeremy Hunt said that while working remotely – which has become increasingly common since the pandemic – has produced “exciting opportunities,” he is worried about a “loss of creativity” when it is permanent. A recent Deloitte survey found that 77% of Gen Z and 71% of millennials would consider looking for a new job if their employer asked them to go to their workplace full-time. Kate Sweeney, partner and human capital lead at Deloitte, said younger workers “expect to be able to flex their work to accommodate their personal life.” She added: “Employers who recognise this desire for choice and support this are more likely to attract, retain and motivate the best talent from these two generations.” Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: “Office environments provide valuable opportunities for collaboration, learning and social interaction, but the pandemic has also demonstrated the value of remote working in fostering employee well-being, and work-life balance, without compromising on productivity.”
Our Comment: Office working should be ‘default’, Chancellor says
Matthew Pinto-Chilcott. FCIPOD, ACEL, Owner of Consensus HR comments: “Following many of our blogs written on this subject and shown below, we can now see within this article on the BBC and The Times that Jeremy Hunt has now made his opinion on the subject of not returning to the office with our Chartered Institute also having a say. We have had to help some of our clients get their teams back to the office but some have also expressed that it does actually work for their business not working from the office full time but on a flexible basis with some set compulsory days such as Tuesday, Wednesday. Business Owners need to ensure that they fully investigate whether this does work for their team and the business and through consultation with the team, take the necessary action as after all, without business there is no job but by not discussing it with the team, it can result in extreme adverse effects for the business such as bad moral, production, retention to name a few.”
YOUR OUTSOURCED HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.
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