A study of businesses of all sizes and industries across the UK, carried out on behalf of Towergate Health & Protection, has revealed the current state of play when it comes to hybrid working.

The figures show that hybrid working is still very much in place, with 30% of companies saying that the majority of their staff split their working time between home and their usual place of work. The average company has 39% of its employees working on a hybrid basis, and this rises to nearly half (47%) of employees among large companies. Just 14% of companies said they had no employees hybrid working.

However, over half (54%) of employers said they are actively trying to encourage employees back to the office. In a bid to do this, employers are utilising a variety of tactics including: mandatory office days, free meals, health and wellbeing support, and subsidised transport costs.

While the majority of employers do offer, or have had little choice but to offer, hybrid working, it is clear that many would now prefer staff to be back in their usual workplace.

Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection said, “Encouraging employees back to the office will take a careful mix of incentives, and health and wellbeing support will be fundamental. As working styles widen, employers will have to widen their health and wellbeing offering to match. This will be in terms of what they offer, and where. Information gathering will be key and varied methods of communication will be vital. Support will need to include a mix of remote and in-person, and we’re going to see an increase in the use of wellbeing platforms to make support easier to access too.”

Support will need to be appropriate to the different demographics of the workforce and to employees’ differing needs. This means offering a wide range of options, covering all four pillars of health and wellbeing - physical, mental, social and financial - to help the transition and ensure a healthy, positive, and productive return to the workplace.

Towergate believes that working from home can potentially bring with it a whole host of health and wellbeing issues. These can include musculoskeletal issues from not having a good work desk setup, to the mental pressures of isolation and lack of social contact. Employees may even be hit financially by the current high costs of heating their home while they work. So support may be as diverse as virtual physio appointments, online counselling, and financial education; and this will also need to be coupled with access to face-to-face support.

Photo: Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection.