The Workers Union has backed home working, describing it as the ‘future’ for British Workers.
The announcement came as banking giant HSBC revealed that it will allow 1,200 employees to permanently work from home.
The move forms part of the bank’s plan to reduce its office footprint by nearly 40 percent.
HSBC chief executive, Noel Quinn, said: ‘The nature of working within our offices will change to have a higher occupancy per square foot, because we’ll have a hybrid style of working.’
This latest development comes after the bank conducted a survey with its employees. HSBC also offered home-based staff a £300 cash boost to cover increases in their utility bills.
The changes have proved popular with staff working in areas such as customer call centres, with 70 percent taking the homeworking option. Meanwhile only 5 percent have decided to return to the office on a regular basis.
The offer of additional flexibility means HSBC have joined other major companies such as AVIVA in moving away from primarily office-based operations.
The Workers Union on Home Working
In the early part of this century, companies began to accept the need to offer workers a style of employment that reflected the realities of the modern world. Since then the vision of a commute-free future has contracted, as the financial crisis and paranoia about employees’ working practices has shifted the emphasis back to office-based working.
Needless to say, COVID-19 has blown the gates off this debate and allowed many people the opportunity to create a better work/life balance for themselves and their families.
As an organisation that views technology as the primary driver of change, we are pleased to see major employers taking a bold first-step towards a different vision of employee relations. The communications infrastructure is there, as is the proof that people can be trusted to deliver high-quality work without leaving the house.
So it is imperative that employers recognise the spirit of the age, and put plans in place to offer the hard-working people of this country the flexibility they deserve.
The Workers Union – fighting for social justice, fighting for you
