Six years on from the first Covid-19 lockdown, working from home has become a mainstream practice.

Many employers have moved beyond initial emergency measures and have actively redesigned roles to support flexible working – with one in five people now working mainly from home, compared to just one in twenty in 2019. The UK has one of the highest rates of homeworking internationally and it has delivered benefits for many workers, including disabled people, carers and parents.

But there are concerns that it has also highlighted inequalities between workers and jobseekers who can work remotely and those who can’t. At the same time, more employers appear to be calling staff ‘back to the office’, with a sharp fall in remote vacancies in recent months.

Figure 1: Proportion of jobs advertised as remote or hybrid in the UK

Source: Work Foundation analysis of Adzuna Intelligence jobs vacancies data. Each year runs from 1 May to 30 April.

This reversal comes at a time when Government is seeking to bolster access to flexible working through the Employment Rights Act and boost labour market participation among people with long-term ill health.

At a recent Work Foundation event, Ben Harrison chaired an expert panel to explore the future of remote and hybrid work in the UK, and how it can be utilised to improve access to secure and flexible employment in the years ahead.

An emergency response that forced a structural change in how people work

The rapid shift to remote working in 2020 was not the result of careful workforce planning, but a necessary response to an unprecedented crisis. As Louise Brown, Vice Principal for Corporate Services at Wigan & Leigh College, reflected, “Remote working wasn’t a strategy — it was a survival response. Reactive and imperfect, but it forced a shift towards leadership and trust at scale.”

What began as a short-term adjustment has since evolved into a more deliberate organisational strategy for many employers. Organisations are no longer asking whether remote or hybrid working is technically possible, but how it can be embedded effectively into current and future workforce models.

Baroness Ros Scott – who spoke to many leaders while chairing the House of Lords inquiry into Homebased Working – highlighted that employers had told her it’s not a temporary shift, but a structural change in how people work. Remote and hybrid work has become embedded in the modern labour market and it’s often a priority for jobseekers. Vicki Davenport from NHS Supply Chain said the first question many candidates ask is about flexible working policies, “They’re asking about working from home before almost anything else.”

Remote and hybrid working can be the difference between being able to work or not

While debates about productivity and organisational culture often dominate headlines, the panel emphasised that remote and hybrid working can have profound implications for labour market inclusion.

Dr Paula Holland from Lancaster University underlined the importance of flexibility in widening access to work, “Remote and hybrid working isn’t just wanted — we actually need it, particularly to meet the needs of disabled workers and those out of the labour market due to ill health.”

For many individuals, the ability to work from home enables them to work. Flexible arrangements can remove barriers linked to commuting, health conditions or caring responsibilities, enabling people to enter or remain in employment.

However, the panel warned that without careful design there are risks. Paula Holland stated that if done badly that remote and hybrid work “could reinforce existing inequalities rather than reduce them.”

The need to develop leadership and managerial capabilities

At the heart of the discussion was the importance of management practices, performance and organisational culture in making flexibility a success.

Vicki Davenport called for a fundamental rethink in how organisations are managed, “We need to move from thinking about presence to thinking about performance — what people deliver, not where they sit.” Baroness Ros Scott highlighted that when talking to employers who had mandated workers return to the office, none of them could clearly articulate a “sense of exactly why”. In addition, she added that there was little evidence on the impact of homeworking on productivity.

Traditional management approaches have often relied on visibility and oversight, but hybrid and remote models demand greater trust, clearer objectives and more effective communication. The panel agreed this requires a significant cultural shift and Vicki Davenport noted, “Leaders are having to unlearn habits that were built around visibility and control.”

Louise Brown pointed out that when managed well, most employees understand that different roles and organisations have different operational needs. But leaders and managers have an important role to play in balancing fairness, operational requirements and employee expectations. She suggested while teachers understand they have to be in the classroom to teach, they don’t need to be sat in the staffroom marking for two hours straight after class – they can do that work in a time and place that works for them.

Under new legislation in the Employment Rights Act, making a flexible working request will become a day one right for all employees with employers required to accommodate requests where possible. Most of the panel agreed that this further shift towards flexible working is welcome but that it will set a baseline instead of guaranteeing good practice.

However, organisations that invest in strong leadership, inclusive management practices and outcome-based performance frameworks are more likely to realise the benefits of remote and hybrid working. However, speakers warned that employers who cling to outdated models risk undermining both productivity and employee engagement.

Remote and hybrid are here to stay but the polarised debate may continue

Six years on from one of the biggest changes to work in decades, the panel agreed that remote and hybrid working is here to stay.

Whilst it is likely that some politicians and business leaders will continue to stir up discontent around working from home, organisations must focus on investing in leadership and managerial capabilities to get the best out of their teams wherever they work.

At the event drew to a close, Paula Holland called the Government and employers to help deliver more remote and hybrid jobs to help improve workforce health, and support people to stay in work or return to work. But she warned that location is just one part of the challenge, “Good work is about more than location — it’s about autonomy, security and wellbeing.”

Watch the full discussion on YouTube

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