UP TO three in four businesses will be encouraging their staff to work from home, even when Covid-19 has been conquered, says a local IT support expert.
Tony Capewell has been analysing recent research in the tech world and believes that business has changed so much in just the last eight months that we will never go back to a solely office-based culture.
“In terms of business leaders adopting and embracing technology, we have jumped forwards five or ten years since March,” he said. “The technology has been there for some time for anyone to work anywhere on any device.
“But organisations were slow to embrace it and that was stopping it from being a mainstream working practice.
“Now that all businesses have seen there are many benefits to fully flexible working, it’s clear that the majority will want to maintain that flexibility, even when the Covid crisis is over.”
Across the world there have been plenty of examples of large firms encouraging their staff to fully, or partly, work from home. Mr Capewell, founder and managing director of Milton Keynes-based Your Cloud Works, says that will be reflected locally as businesses start to make long-term strategy decisions in the early part of next year.
“I can see lots of businesses here taking a blended approach to their staff,” he said. “There will be the opportunity to work in an office some of the time. But many staff will be able to choose to work from home for at least part of their week, if they prefer.
“This will allow businesses to reduce their overheads while also offering more attractive roles to working parents, who often need greater flexibility.”
