Here at 9-2-3, we like to look for silver linings, and so as 2020 draws to a close, we've been thinking about the positives we can draw from this strange, strange year.
Back in March, flexible working became an overnight necessity for many businesses, whatever their views on the matter. It wasn't always flexible working as we know it here at 9-2-3. In all our campaigning over the years, none of us had ever envisaged running conference calls whilst cuddling toddlers. Juggling our jobs and home schooling was never part of the plan. But the months rolled on, schools and nurseries opened once again, and we settled into the "new normal". Suddenly, we found ourselves in the midst of the largest flexible working experiment the world had ever known. What had at the beginning seemed to some like an impossible set of working circumstances began to feel much calmer. It blossomed into something which gave us much more balance in our lives, at a time when we desperately needed it. Whether it's enabled us to take our children to school without constantly chivvying them to move more quickly, or being able to set the alarm for 7am rather than 6, this new pattern feels much more sustainable for many of us - like a breath of fresh air. No surprise, then, that 44 per cent of us want to ask for permanently flexible working arrangements once this is all over.
And what of employers? What's their take on this monumental shift? Well, a huge number of businesses have seen that flexible working can and does work for them, and are determined to carry these incredible changes forward beyond the end of the pandemic. Even some of the world's biggest and best-known companies are joining the agile working revolution - Twitter and Dropbox have both announced that their employees will be able to work from home permanently. Many organisations are reducing their bricks-and-mortar footprint and with it, their overheads. That's not to say that there's no place for physical offices - the 9-2-3 team all agree that getting together once a week used to spark our imaginations and give rise to great ideas - but the most popular model emerging out of the pandemic mists seems to be a hybrid one. It seems likely that in the future, many employees will be spending part of the week working remotely, and part of the week travelling to offices, or local hubs, to join their colleagues. At a time when most companies are acutely aware of their environmental reputations, this seems like an easy way to reduce our collective carbon footprint. It improves employee retention, and raises the possibility of attracting the best talent from a much wider geographical area - something which could pay huge dividends in many sectors. Overall, this seems like a no-brainer, and there are suggestions that those companies who revert back to the old ways could find it harder to recruit the best people.
Ultimately, only time will tell. That said, we're hopeful that there is something positive that we can take away from 2020. The next 12 months are going to be an interesting road for all of us, and one of great change. We can't wait to travel it with you.