Hybrid working arrangements appear to be permanent
The survey of hybrid working we conducted earlier this year suggests that such patterns are here to stay, with relatively few respondents having made changes that reduce employees’ existing flexibility, either in terms of the proportion of the workforce on a hybrid working arrangement or the content of their hybrid working policies. However, just under a quarter have increased the number of days that staff must attend – typical minimum attendance requirements now range from 1.0 days in the public sector to 2.8 days in private services. Meanwhile there is little evidence that hybrid working has any bearing on employees’ pay.
The extent of hybrid working
Across our sample of 70 employers that offer hybrid working, the median proportion of the workforce on such arrangements is 50%. The not-for-profit and public sectors have the highest median proportion of staff working a hybrid pattern (81% and 70% respectively), falling to 45% within manufacturing and 31% in private services – both industries with large numbers of frontline jobs that cannot ordinarily be performed remotely. But nevertheless the figures involved still cover large numbers of staff in roles that are amenable to hybrid arrangements.
According to our research, workers who have the option of working on a hybrid basis usually avail themselves of this opportunity. At the median, just 2% of employees that are eligible for hybrid working instead opt to work wholly on site.
Changes to hybrid working practices and policies
There has been little change in the proportion of staff eligible for hybrid working, with 76% of respondents indicating that they have no plans to make any changes in this respect. While a further 4% of respondents plan to reduce the proportion of staff on such patterns, this is almost offset by the 3% of employers that intend to increase hybrid working arrangements. Meanwhile, just under a tenth (9%) of organisations have already taken steps to decrease the proportion of hybrid workers while 7% have increased them. Where respondents gave reasons for curtailing hybrid working, this was most commonly with a view to promoting team building/cohesion (78% of organisations in this subset) while 44% did so (or intend to) to enable more direct supervision.
Two-thirds of respondents with hybrid working policies have not changed the content of these in any way in the last three years. However, just under a quarter (23%) have increased the number of days that staff must attend while 5% have gone in the opposite direction and decreased the number of days required on site. (A further 5% have made other changes to their hybrid working policies that do not relate to attendance.)
How hybrid working is managed
The majority (63%) of organisations have a policy on minimum office or site attendance for roles that could feasibly be undertaken from home and a further 6% plan to implement one. Such policies are most common in public sector organisations (83%) and least prevalent in private services (56%). Meanwhile around a quarter (27%) have no plans to introduce a formal policy and 4%, all of which are in the private sector, operate a ‘remote-first’ approach to attendance, whereby working from home is the default.
Where hybrid working policies exist, they generally (70% of respondents) apply to all teams. The median minimum requirement for attendance is 2.0 days a week (2.2 days on average). Attendance requirements are highest in private services (2.8 days at the median and 2.6 days on average) and lowest in the public sector (1.0 and 1.4 days respectively). Such policies are generally applied on a pro rata basis for part-time staff.
Just ten respondents (14% of the sample) have fixed days when all staff must be on site. These are generally with a view to bringing teams together, although conversely some organisations have to limit the number of employees who can be in the same place at any given time, having reduced their office space following the pandemic. The most common days for required attendance are Tuesdays and Wednesdays and these are also the most popular days for hybrid workers to choose to attend site.
Few respondents monitor site attendance centrally: for the large part, it is left to line managers to agree and oversee arrangements locally. However, employers report that compliance with attendance policies is generally high: more than three-quarters (77%) find that staff who are eligible for hybrid working generally attend in-person in line with expectations and at 16% of organisations, attendance is greater than required. Just 7% of employers find that eligible staff do not attend in-person as much as required.
Little apparent impact on pay
Hybrid working practices do not yet appear to be having any significant effect on pay, with just two respondents indicating that pay differs according to office attendance.
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