More than half of UK workers have felt happier over the past year as a result of working from home, according to a study commissioned by Avaya.
The Life and Work Beyond 2020 study, conducted by research firm Davies Hickman Partners, polled 10,000 consumers and workers in 11 countries to discover the impacts of COVID-19 on consumer wellbeing and values as the world embraces a new world of work.
The research found that workers in the UK are among the most appreciative of work-from-anywhere models, with 44 percent saying that the ability to conduct hybrid work – from a home or office – would contribute to their happiness. The survey also revealed that over half UK workers feel they have the right technology to work from wherever they want. However, the UK has some catching up to do as it trails in 6th place behind India, where 73 percent consider themselves to be equipped for remote working as well as the UAE with 64 percent and the US with 62 percent.
A key finding is that only 30 percent of UK employees said that they loved the idea of being able to work from anywhere in the future, meaning that a key requirement for business success in 2021 and beyond will be building a hybrid model of work that suits the needs of every employee.
The study also revealed some of the biggest concerns for UK workers as they have been navigating the new world of work and look to what the future will bring. 32 percent are worried about having to go back to meeting people within their work environments and 45 percent cited frustration when their employer doesn’t use technology that would make them more productive (this rose to 61 percent for those with a partner and children at home). The study revealed that there is a strong motivation to address employee concerns like these as 73 percent of UK works say that their productivity improves when they are happy.
Avaya Managing Director Steve Joyner said: “Findings from our Life and Work Beyond 2020 study highlight the need for employers to provide clear guidance on what their future of work might look like, which is understandable and necessary after this turbulent and uncertain year. We all know that a happy employee is a productive one and technology where it’s needed to support an employee to do their tasks well, is critical.
“Today’s home office is a mishmash of various technologies and employees are trying to do the best they can with the communication tools available to them – but bear in mind that often these aren’t as efficient as what they had in the office. I’d encourage employers to move toward what we call a more ‘composable’ technology architecture, delivering a set of communication components that can be easily leveraged and combined to deliver more effective employee experience, even when working outside of the business office.”
