While it seems that more and more workplaces are requesting employees return to the office, research from King’s College London reminds us of the consequences of this strategy in the war for talent. The study suggests that around a quarter of employees would quit their job if working from home was prohibited.

The research was based on data from around 30,000 full-time employees from 27 countries. The data revealed that people regarded working from home so positively that doing so just two to three days per week was equivalent to a 5% pay rise.

“The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a huge, sudden uptake in working from home, as individuals and organizations responded to contagion fears and government restrictions on commercial and social activities.” the researchers explain. “No other episode in modern history involved such a pronounced and widespread shift in working arrangements in such a compressed time frame.”

Significant consequences

The researchers believe that the social and economic consequences of this shift will take many years to truly unfold, but we can nonetheless see some immediate changes as a result of our desire to work from home.

They collected data in two waves, the first of which was during the summer of 2021, with the second then collected at the beginning of 2022. They reveal how our attitude towards working from home evolved during the pandemic.

Foremost among this shift was in the way in which employees engage with work itself, and also the attitudes of businesses and managers to accommodate working remotely. For instance, it emerged that employers still consistently underestimate the amount of time their employees would like to work from home. This desire is particularly strong among people with children and those with a longer commute.

While this may be out of fear around productivity, the research mirrored other studies on the topic in finding that employees were generally as productive when working from home as they were in the office.