40% of Brits work from home weekly

Emma Finamore
18 Apr 2019

A quarter would turn a job down if it meant not being able to do so.

Placeholder — 15% are concerned about colleagues judging them for being out of the office

Working from home is on the rise, with 40% taking the opportunity at least once a week and one in 10 now working from home full-time.

A quarter (26%) of Brits would turn down a job offer if they were not able to work from home.

Over half (59%) say they are more productive working at home, and a fifth (22%) believe it has improved their work life balance.

Despite this, almost half (47%) of employees state their workplace doesn’t have an official policy on working from home.

New data from jobs site, Monster.co.uk, shows that working from home is on the rise with 40% taking the opportunity at least once a week and one in 10 now working from home full time. In fact, the practice is becoming so popular that a quarter (26%) of Brits surveyed stated they would not accept a job if it did not allow them the option of working from home.

Despite the benefits almost half (47%) of employees state their workplace doesn’t have an official policy on working from home.

The positives of working from home are clear, with over half of those surveyed (59%) saying they are more productive when they choose to work from home and 46% stating they actually prefer to work from home.

When asked to list what they felt the most important benefits of working from home were, those surveyed stated time saved commuting (30%), a better work life balance (22%), higher productivity (14%), reduced stress (11%), and money saved from no longer commuting in to work (9%).

A small proportion also highlighted their reduced carbon footprint as a bonus. The average person in the UK would reduce their CO2 emissions by 988 kg, equivalent to the volume of CO2 absorbed by 44 fully grown trees in a year.

Despite the benefits almost half (47%) of employees state their workplace doesn’t have an official policy on working from home. And perhaps because of this Brits do have some concerns about converting to working from home. A third (33%) admit they like to work from home but only part time, 15% are concerned about colleagues judging them for being out of the office, and 11% worry they are less likely to be considered for promotions.

For those who want to embrace working from home, but are unsure how to approach their employers, Monster.co.uk has created a template letter asking for flexible working that can be filled in and presented to managers to get the process started.

Louise Goodman, Marketing Director at >Monster.co.uk, said: “Working from home is a growing trend in the UK – however some businesses have been slow to adapt. For anyone who thinks they would work well outside of the office environment, and would like to save a little time on the side, you are well within your rights to ask your employer for the opportunity to work from home.

“At Monster, we ran a few ‘what if’ scenarios looking into the other positive impacts that increased working from home could bring. It turns out beyond potentially improving work life balance, we could see less crowded trains, substantial savings and and significantly reduced CO2 emissions. All very good reasons to consider a switch.”

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