A study commissioned by Tech PR agency Eskenzi PR, found that the majority of the UK workforce wants to continue working from home.

The COVID-19 Remote Working Survey carried out by OnePoll found that a third (31%) of respondents would prefer to continue working from home either every day or four days per week. Only 9% of respondents would want to work in the office full-time, suggesting that 91% of the general working population would like to have the option of working from home.

Why working from home is preferred

Working from home cuts out having to spend both time and money on commuting to and from work, and as workers have spent that time and money elsewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic, they no longer crave their daily commute. Over half of the respondents (54.19%) agreed that not having to commute was their main reason for favouring a greater remote working culture. The opportunity to dress down for work closely follows, as 38.41% of participants cited it as a reason to favour working from home; ranking higher than the ability to work more productively (35.98%), or the feeling of being less stressed (34%) at home. In fact, it also ranks higher than spending quality time with family (28.48%). 

Yvonne Eskenzi, founder and owner of Eskenzi PR, said: “This survey shows that for the first time, people have had a taste of working from home and they love it because they’re more relaxed, they don’t need to travel and can spend time with their family and pets. Interestingly, a third of respondents think the ideal working week would be better-spent half at home and half in the office.  

“We can only hope that this great remote working experiment has shown employers that their staff can be trusted to work just as productively from home; particularly as it also appears to have a positive impact on their well-being as well as the environment. This can also be good for companies’ productivity and profitably, as they’ll need less office space with fewer people there 100% of the time.”

Other interesting findings include: 

• Home for Deliveries: More than a third (34%) of respondents cited being home for deliveries as a reason in favour of remote working.
• Time with Pets: Almost a quarter (23.18%) of respondents want to work remotely to spend more time with their pets.
• Distinctions Between Age Groups: The age group that most wanted to work at home were 23-34 year olds (93%), while those over 55 appeared more keen to go into the office (86%).
• Distinctions Between Regions: In the East Midlands and Scotland, 23% and 22% respectively, wanted to work remotely every day. Yet, this dropped to 8% across the Sea in Northern Ireland.