Hybrid working has the potential to be the 'best of both worlds’ says House of Lords report with insights from LSE academics.
A new report published by the House of Lords Home-based Working Committee explores the effects and future development of home working in the U.K. 'Is working from home working?' cites research from Professor Riccardo Crescenzi from the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE alongside Assistant Professor Filippo Boeri (City St George's, University of London) and Assistant Professor Davide Rigo (University of Birmingham). The team previously worked together on the publication of Work from Home and Firm Productivity: The Role of ICT and Size (2024), which found that across Europe, regions which already have the most knowledge-intensive jobs have benefitted the most from remote and hybrid working.
The Committee stated that working from home has become the 'new normal' for many; the ONS estimates that 13% of working adults in Great Britain work from home all of the time and a further 26% work from home some of the time, with the UK estimated to have one of the highest levels of home working in the world. A key finding concluded that home working could support the Government’s plans to get people back into work, by enabling people to work who might not otherwise be able to do so.
On his team’s inclusion in the report, Professor Riccardo Crescenzi said: “We are very pleased that the House of Lords report has devoted such careful attention to our work. From the very beginning, our research using population-wide data – covering all firms and workers, not just survey samples – showed that working from home is neither a universal blessing nor a looming disaster. It creates real opportunities, but it also has counterintuitive effects on who benefits, with clear winners and losers across regions, sectors and social groups. This is why work-from-home cannot be treated as a panacea, but as a profound change that needs to be governed through sound policies and new management practices if it is to support productivity and inclusion.”
The report stated that when done well, hybrid working can be the best of both worlds, and many return-to-office mandates amount to formalising hybrid working, rather than full-time office attendance. It also highlighted that although hybrid working can help employers with recruitment and retention, it can present challenges for collaboration and management and that changes to flexible working requests under the Government’s Employment Rights Bill could risk “years of litigation” at employment tribunals, unless the legislation is defined clearly and effectively.
The Committee set out a number of recommendations for Government, including clarifying whether remote and hybrid working are being considered as part of existing initiatives to support people with disabilities and long-term health conditions back into work. The report also advises promoting and incentivising employer investment in management training to support effective remote and hybrid working, moving away from further regulation or legislation on home working and implementing changes to flexible working requests under the Employment Rights Bill in a way that considers the impact on employment tribunals.
Baroness Scott of Needham Market, who chaired the Home-based Working Committee, said: “The extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic transformed working from home into a ‘new normal’ for many workers. Our report represents a comprehensive examination of all aspects of home working based on a thorough consideration of the available evidence.
“The increased flexibility of remote and hybrid working can be especially beneficial to people with disabilities and to parents or carers, and may help them to work where they couldn’t previously. If the Government wants to encourage more people back into work, then it should look into the potential of remote and hybrid working alongside existing back to work initiatives.
“While we don’t expect the Government to legislate further on a subject that is best handled by employers and workers, it should provide relevant guidance and promote already existing guidance more widely. As it implements the Employment Rights Bill, it should ensure its changes to flexible working requests do not put undue pressure on the employment tribunal system.
“The recommendations in our report are practicable and deliverable and we look forward to receiving the Government’s response in due course. We urge the Government to work towards implementation, including cross departmental data gathering so that current trends can be tracked, analysed and put to good use when developing policy in the future.”
in order to announce what we are doing – we are planning to organise a public even on this in early February
Referring to further work in this area, Professor Crescenzi commented: “At LSE we are now completing a new study based on a survey of UK businesses on remote and hybrid work, which will provide very up-to-date evidence on how UK firms are adapting and what support they need. We are delighted that the House of Lords report has helped bring these issues to the forefront of the policy debate. Our new findings will offer fresh insights to read alongside the Committee’s report, helping policymakers, employers and workers to understand how to make work-from-home arrangements work better for the economy and for society as a whole.”
Find out more and read the full report here.