In November, the FDA officially launched our new report with a hybrid event, with FDA members joining us both in person at our head office and online, as a panel of guests discussed the findings. You can read the full report below.
The report finds that, overwhelmingly, FDA members feel that hybrid working has worked well for them, with 71% telling us that it had made them more productive. There is clearly little appetite to return to the working patterns of the past, with 87% suggesting they would like to continue working 60% of their time at home. Yet while the clear majority of FDA members report that their work-life balance has improved as a result of hybrid working, there remains a pervasive long-hours culture – with 60% reporting that the working of excessive hours is a problem in their organisation.
The report therefore calls on the government to look at ways to better protect and support employees, to drive a cultural change to combat the issue of excessive working hours, and to use hybrid working as a tool of regeneration and driver of equality.
The launch event was chaired by FDA General Secretary Dave Penman, who was joined by report author FDA Intern Euan Stock, senior HR professional and lecturer Gemma Dale, Chief Executive of Investors in People Paul Devoy, and Head of Research at the thinktank Bright Blue, Anvar Sarygulov.
The panel considered the lessons learned through the pandemic, the benefits and challenges of hybrid working, and what the future world of work might look like. FDA members also had the opportunity to question our expert panel and share their experiences of hybrid and remote working.
Our panel looked at how the success of hybrid working for organisations was based on good implementation and recognising the need for better training for managers and a more coherent approach, rather than ad-hoc informal arrangements. The panel also considered the need for a change in attitude to what work is, with Devoy concluding that it was time to “stop measuring inputs and start measuring outputs”.
You can also download the report as a PDF
here.