What makes people want to return to the office – and what’s putting people off?
Siobhan Morrin
Senior Editor, Special Projects @ LinkedIn | Content Strategy, Data-Driven Storytelling, Editing
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The UK’s vaccine rollout and the end of Covid restrictions have been a boon for businesses across industries and a confidence boost for UK professionals. The latest LinkedIn data shows overall confidence levels at their highest point since the end of 2020, up from a score of 18 to an all-time high of 27 by mid-July.
As restrictions have ended, the big topic on people’s minds is what work is going to look like in future, with an ongoing debate about a return to offices and workplaces. Whether or not you agree with chancellor Rishi Sunak’s comments to LinkedIn News about the benefits of in-person working, a discussion of the future is almost unavoidable.
Most UK professionals say their employers have indicated that there will be a return to the physical workplace in the next six months, with only 11% sure that there won’t be a return. A fifth of professionals are awaiting details from their employer about a return or otherwise, LinkedIn data shows.
The majority of workers expect to see a hybrid form of working, with 56% saying their firms were planning for staff to work remotely on a part-time basis. A fairly large proportion (44%) said that their employer plans to let them work away from the physical workplaces full-time, though almost a quarter (23%) said that was definitely not on the cards.
Future of work: Yes to socialising, maybe to meetings
What are people looking forward to about a return to workplaces – and what are they less sure about? When it comes to attitudes among professionals, LinkedIn data shows the vast majority are looking forward to collaborating and socialising with colleagues in person.
Overall, 70% of respondents said they were looking forward to collaborating with colleagues, and 69% said they wanted to return to socialise with others in person. More than four in 10 are also keen to return to the workplace for the ability to do focused work.
Perhaps surprisingly, the prospect of meetings is a divisive one, with a split along generational lines.
Half of Gen X and millennial workers say having meetings where most participants are in the same room encourages them to return to the workplace, while baby boomers are only slightly less enthusiastic, with 46% citing it as a positive. However, Gen Z are notably less positive about the prospect: only 36% say in-person meetings would encourage them to go to the physical workplace. And in fact, a similar proportion of Gen Z professionals (30%) say the prospect of meetings with most people in the room discourages them from returning to work.
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Other notable findings about returning to the physical workplace:
Turnaround for travel
Digging more into UK confidence levels, the data shows some big transformations across industries in the past six to 12 months.
The significant shift in the pandemic situation between June 2020 and June 2021 has contributed to a turnaround for leisure: travel and recreation has gone from one of the least confident industries, scoring -23 in Apr-Jun 2020, to most confident in 2021. Travel and recreation was the fourth most confident industry in Q2 of 2021, behind consumer goods, software and IT and corporate services. The industry also saw a significant quarter-on-quarter confidence rise in 2021, up 11 points from Q1 to a score of 38 in Q2 (April to June).
People working in consumer goods, though, have seen the most dramatic quarter-on-quarter growth in confidence, rising from 24 in Jan-Mar to a confidence score of 49 in Apr-Jun. Those in non-profits also saw a similarly rapid rise this year, moving from the least confident industry in Q1 2021 (scoring -2), to a score of 28 by the end of June.
Only a handful of industries have seen confidence drop slightly since the start of the year – finance, construction and manufacturing have each seen a drop of two points but remain in the higher confidence levels of 34, 33 and 27, respectively. Notably healthcare, most directly impacted by the pandemic, has dropped in confidence from 27 to 24 from January to June. And those in transport and logistics, an industry still heavily impacted by shortages of labour, capacity and containers, has dropped to the least confident industry, from a score of 20 in Q1 2021 to 12 in Q2.
Methodology:
LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. More than 300 members from the UK respond in each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners and retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyse data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy. Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership and overall market population are not accounted for. Confidence index scores are calculated by assigning each respondent a score (-100, -50, 0, 50, 100) based on how much they agree or disagree with each of three statements, and then finding the composite average score across all statements.
Alexandra Gunther from LinkedIn Market Research contributed to this article.
Leadership Presentation Expert | Founder: INKPPT & INKLUSIVE*
3 年Interesting! This was an amazing read.
Experienced independent actuarial consultant
3 年Returning to office 1) requires you to commute and 2) requires you to live in the same general area as your office. Both of these are just far too restrictive.
Director, CIFCO Captial Limited. NHS System Migration Specialist. District Councillor, Mid Suffolk District Council
3 年I certainly won't be returning to the office for more than a day every couple of months. The prospect of having to put up with a hot desk, a commute ( yes even by bike) , with in office lighting & heating that arent what I want - and i can work around school runs ( single dad) means home working is now permanent. If I'm awake at 5.30 and want to start work I can do this. "Out of hours" work can be done without it feeling like its out of hours, MS Teams for official comms, Whatsapp for unofficial. Never out of touch. We are planning on meeting out of hours for meals / pub etc
Senior Flight Software Engineer | Enabling Trusted Autonomy | MEng MIET
3 年As a Gen-Z in the Aerospace industry (software & drone hardware) I've realised that it really comes down to the type of work you are doing. Building hardware? Then you need to have engineers together in a room to problem solve. Building software? You can likely do a bulk of your work at home, whilst going deeper in your focus. There is no doubt that the office does inhibit the ability to conduct Deep Work. Cal Newport touches on this reality in his book on Deep Work and advises people to find a dedicated place (quiet and free of distraction) to actually do focussed work. For some of us (not all) this is at home. Personally, I don't care. I see the benefits of the office for collaboration, but if I need to actually get stuff done properly and write a report, code up a solution, or do some deep thinking then I can do that better at home. Do I need to problem solve with a team of people and then go work on the hardware? Then I will do that in the office and enjoy some ad-hoc collaboration. Reality? There is no clear answer. The world is changing and COVID-19 has accelerated it in my view. Open to discussion but that's my 2 cents.
Graphic Designer at Wolf1834
3 年I think it has a lot to do with which industry you're in. Quite a few of our clients are remote anyway so the collaboration hasn't't changed. Interestingly our Team calls have been more engaging as everyone has been in the same boat, stuck at home and in need of a chat so we've built deeper relationships with teams across our business that may of not happened just by passing by someones desk on the way to another meeting or the coffee machine. (saved money on the coffee, won't be buying out ever again) And as a lot of folk were hot desking before again things happened remotely. My own team are eager to stay WFH and we are a mixed gen bunch. I've loved the control working from home has given me and the flexibility of managing my time and life. I've put more hours in happily as i'm in the comforts of home enjoying my own surroundings rather than trying to escape a rather dank and dull office (Lovely clients, just a standard 1950's desk layout) I've also been able to help my kids with home schooling during lock down and they've been able to see me at work and what i do and how i do it which i'm sure has helped them understand our adult lives a little better, don't think they want to grow up now ha ha. I'm lucky because I only have to drive not so far to work but as a past long sufferer of public transport and all it's deep joys and expense i'm certainly in the belief that if you can work from home and your comfortable doing so keep on doing it, it's time to change the whole landscape and working practises. It gives you the lovely illusion of freedom and control. Plus you can turn up Spotify as load as you like and not have to wear silly headphones. It's a small win but i'll take it. Just feel sorry for the poor old high streets micro economy and that is the reason the GOV wants us back in the office, to help drive that again. I think they assume it'll all just go back to how it was but there is a push back coming. A lot of people have proved it works WFH and just would like to continue to do so. But there are many others that have had a nightmare and for them i really feel for. The house sharers and single parents it must of been horrible. But this discussion will go round and round until some micromanager tells the majority "right then, everyone back in"