National Working From Home Day 2020 will be taking place on the 15th May 2020, and will form part of Work Wise Week 2020, which will be running from the 10th May 2020 - 16th May 2020. As articles from previous years have highlighted, this is an initiative organised by Work Wise UK, with the aim of promoting smarter and more flexible working practices
National Working From Home Day 2020
The official aim behind National Working From Home Day 2020 and Work Wise Week 2020 according to Work Wise UK is to "promote modern “smarter” working practices such as agile, flexible, remote and mobile working, as well as working from home. We invite Employers, Employees and the Self Employed to use their social media channels to say what they are doing to encourage smarter working referencing #workwiseweek and #nwfhd." In recent years, working from home has increased considerably. The Chief Executive of Work Wise UK, Phil Flaxton (who has organised National Working From Home Day 2020), states: "Whilst it is encouraging to see a significant increase in the number of employees working from home there still needs to be a cultural shift for it to be accepted more widely. Attitudes are changing on how we balance or mix work and lifestyle. Increasing mobility and technology is shifting the acceptance or need for traditional 9-5 work patterns, to be replaced by a more flexible approach to the working week and this trend will continue as more of us embrace new, smarter ways of working such as working from home. More employers need to realise the tangible benefits of changing outdated working practices to reflect the connected world in which we live. These include, increased productivity, staff retention, less absenteeism and employee burnout. The business case is sound, and it really can be a win-win for all concerned."
Working From Home: The Latest Statistics
National Working From Home Day 2020 represents the 15th year that there has been a national day, with the event having been launched in 2006. The numbers of people working from home and engaging in remote working has increased enormously over the last decade. This is borne out by the latest statistics from the TUC, which are as follows:-
- The TUC estimate that around 1,722,000 people now work from home in the UK, an increase of 374,000 over the last decade (an increase of 27.7%). This represents 6.1% of the workforce.
- 62% of those who work from home are men, and 38% are women.
- The region with the highest proportion of home working is the South West (8.1%), whilst the region with the lowest proportion is Northern Ireland (3.1%)
- In terms of sectors of the economy, that with the largest proportion of home workers is agriculture, forestry and fishing (16.6%), whilst hotels and restaurants has the lowest proportion (1.6%)
- Managers are the most likely to work from home (11.9%), whilst those in 'elementary occupations' such as cleaners are the least likely (2%)
- Those aged 40-59 are most likely to work from home (7.4%), whilst those aged 20-29 are the least likely (3.4%)
- In terms of those not currently working from home, around 4 million would like to work at least part of their time from home.
- Compared to those who rent, homeowners are 73% more likely to work from home
Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC, stated in response to the survey that: "In many cases, homeworking is a win-win-win. Workers get more time with their families, employers can boost productivity and hang on to experienced staff, and the environment benefits as well. But too many employers are clinging to tradition, or don’t trust their staff enough to encourage homeworking. They need to catch up. Unions can help negotiate home working policies that work positively for both employers and staff. And government should be investing in broadband infrastructure so that every worker can get a high-speed connection at home."
The Impact Of The Coronavirus Pandemic Lockdown Upon Homeworking
With National Working From Day 2020 taking place on the 15th May 2020, it is coinciding with many more workers than usual working from home as a result of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. This begs the question as to whether there will be a long term increase in the numbers of those working from home as a consequence of the lockdown, with a long term cultural shift in attitudes towards homeworking. Indeed, the enforced homeworking created by the lockdown could well demonstrate to many that remote working from home is more than feasible given the technology that is available, and that there are huge cost savings to be had from reducing expensive office space. Indeed, James Wildman, the chief executive of Hearst UK, recently told the Guardian: "Coronavirus has concertinaed a lot of change we have been seeing over the last number of years in just three months, flexible working being one of them." Financial analyst at Goodbody, John Cronin, added in the same article: "This will be a revolution in terms of how we work. There’s a lot of wastage. A lot of people travel abroad for one meeting and I think those days are over."
