Home vs office

Hybrid working is a must-have in today's workplace. Employers who ignore this are falling behind as employees demand flexibility. During the pandemic, almost everyone worked from home, so it's daft to now say they can't. Given labour shortages in the UK, especially in financial services, employers also have a practical reason to be accommodating.

We offer hybrid working to nearly all our employees. Personally, I prefer working from the office, but our hybrid workers report a better work-life balance. While we haven't seen a significant difference in sickness rates, those working from home may find it easier to continue working when feeling slightly under the weather as opposed to those commuting.

We pride ourselves on being extremely family-friendly and highlight this in adverts to attract and retain employees. We accommodate our team by offering remote working when needed, flexible hours, and paid time off for medical appointments. We understand everyone has lives outside of work.

Like it or not, hybrid working is here to stay. For us as a business, it works well. The team have the freedom to pick when they work from office or home and it actually provides a better office environment. People are in office because they want to be and not because they are chained to their desk and phone.
As a business, it also allows us to 'cast the net wider', we aren't just looking for people within a commutable radius and we can have a presence further afield.
one drawback to remote working is that when you have all your staff in one place it is very easy to assess their mood, how they are coping and any help or assistance they might require. This is more difficult when you have people spread across multiple locations and working alone at times, so it's important to 'check in' regularly.

Most experienced advisers working for us prefer the flexibility of working where and when they want, mostly from home. Due to the nature of the role, whereby most clients want to have appointments after they finish work, this often means evening appointments and more admin tasks during the day. Working from home seems to work best for most in that role. Having offices that they can utilise when they just want to get out of the house or be around colleagues is also a great option to provide. Employed admin staff who work more standard office hours and share a team workload work better often in an office environment in our experience.

Hybrid working became more prevalent with COVID and lockdowns, but it does have its disadvantages. Employees often miss out on the company vibe, which can't be easily replaced with video team meetings. Additionally, training new employees remotely is extremely challenging. On the other hand, COVID has made more customers comfortable dealing with us online and over the phone, even those from our city, resulting in fewer in-office visits—less than once a month. While I agree that hybrid working may offer health benefits, such as reduced health-related productivity loss and lower rates of obesity and depression, I don't think these benefits fully overcome the negatives, particularly the impact on office culture and team cohesion.