Title: How is the COVID-19 accidental experiment around working from home changing the way the UK will work after lockdown?
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: On 23 March 2020, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, the UK went into lockdown, with workers being instructed to work from home (WfH) wherever they were able to do so. Prior to this point, it was estimated that just 5% of UK employees were mainly working from home, and 30% had ever done so (ONS, 2020a). Under the 2020 lockdown, this rose dramatically to 45% of employed persons working remotely (2020b): an unforeseen change in working practices with very little lead-up and scope for employers to prepare. At the time of writing, lockdown is continuing for office-based workers, and this seems likely to be sustained over the summer for many white collar workers. For researchers, this timeframe presents a significant period in which to explore how working practices around WfH have evolved and might be sustained, or will revert to previous patterns after lockdown. As a particular manifestation of flexible work, working from home has stood as an outlier within the flexible work debate: while it has been associated with notable performance benefits (Riley et al., 2008), it also raises proportionally most distrust with some employers (Collins et al., 2012; Parry, 2017), being work that is not observable in the same way as workplace based activities, and which necessitates a different set of managerial practices and relationships, around which mangers may have received little training. Pre-lockdown, Baruch (2000) observed that the major factor limiting the uptake of WfH was organisation culture, and the embedding of trust within that. The COVID-19 lockdown has forced organisations to observe WfH without those prerequisite conditions, raising the question of what happens next: will WfH make a step-development or return to previous levels, and what kind of organisational learning can be gained from WfH under lockdown? Our project examines the implications of the crisis-driven adoption of working from home in the UK during the the pandemic and lockdown for longer-terms organisational practice and policy responses. It engages with the research questions: - how has the pandemic influenced different sectors in the UK (with case study focus on professional services and public administration)? - what are the longer-term implications of working from home for organisations? - which new behaviours and practices will remain, and which should be encouraged? References: Baruch, Y. (2000) 'Teleworking: benefits and pitfalls as perceived by professionals and managers', New Technology, Work and Employment, 15 (1): 34-49. Collins, A.M., Cartwright, S. and Hislop, D. (2012) 'Homeworking: negotiating the psychological contract', Human Resource Management Journal, 23 (2): 211-225. ONS (2020a) Coronavirus and homeworking in the UK labour market: 2019. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/coronavirusandhomeworkingintheuklabourmarket/2019 ONS (2020b) Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain: 7 May 2020. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsongreatbritain/latest Parry, J. (2017) Employers, the right to request flexible working and older workers: Research Briefing, University of Southampton, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11827.84005. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0FYJxwH0c9tNEVTXzkwZmhTRkE/view Riley, R.; Metcalf, H. And Forth, J. (2008) The business case for Equal Opportunities: An econometric investigation, Department of Work and Pensions Research Report, No. 483.

Lay abstract: This research is designed to support economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, providing timely, actionable insight and recommendations about Working from Home (WfH), and the implications of crisis-driven adaptations for longer-term organisational practice and policy. This project engages with three research questions: (1) how the pandemic has influenced different sectors in the UK; (2) the longer-term implications of WfH; and (3) which new behaviours and working practices will remain and which should be encouraged? A team of cross-institutional experts active in research related to WfH during lockdown, will employ a mixed-methods approach using an online survey, organisational case studies, and secondary analysis of national datasets. The research will explore both employer actions, practices and strategic decision-making, and employee experiences and outcomes of WfH during lockdown and its aftermath. Focusing on Professional Services and Public Administration, a longitudinal perspective will contour and contextualise the recovery process in these sectors, selected for their contrasting business models, frontline pandemic response, and levels of WfH prior to the crisis-driven mass migration of white-collar workers into roles performed entirely from home.

Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;INFECTION