Whilst remaining economically active is important for all types of companies, employees at larger companies are much more interested in flexibility in their relationships at this point.
Two-thirds (67%) of respondents from companies with over 250 employees said they would like more flexible hours to reflect the overall behavioural change instigated by Covid, compared to an overall response rate across companies of all sizes of 52%.
69% of those at the larger companies shared that they would like greater availability of personnel or support (compared to 60% overall) and 69% (compared with 57% overall) said they wanted “more communication with me”.
This points to an interesting shift in company culture. Smaller organisations have generally been better able to reflect the needs and ways of working of their staff, including internal communication; this is shown in the smaller proportions of respondents from those companies flagging this as an issue. But now, those in larger businesses are demanding similar levels of flexibility and responsiveness.
This will have significant impacts on society and business, and large organisations will have to adapt the most. But the benefits could be significant. Many businesses, particularly in the information economy, are already realising they can be as efficient, or even more so, working remotely and expenses, and indeed carbon emissions related to travel can also improve. Businesses should also consider the satisfaction and wellbeing of their teams; for some, remote working will be liberating, for others it will bring more challenges and, with an increase in homeworking this will be important to support those teams.
