Three Way Divide Between Companies on Plans to Return to Work

A new survey from Moneypenny on plans for returning to work post-pandemic,  shows a clear three-way divide between companies planning to offer full home working (36%), those offering a hybrid mix of office and home working (29%) and those expecting staff to be in the office five days a week (33%).

The survey of 200  companies across multiple industry sectors, by leading outsourced communications company Moneypenny, also shows variations in plans depending on industry sector.  For example,  HR companies are most likely to offer full home working (60%) compared with just 15% of legal firms, 25% of companies in sales and marketing and 25% in engineering.

 Similarly, plans for the next six months vary depending on the size of the company: larger companies are more likely to offer home working: 47% of companies with more than 500 employees, compared with 33% of those with 100-249 employees.

At a recent Moneypenny webinar, Julia Hobsbawm OBE, Chair of The Demos Workshift Commission and presenter of The Nowhere Office podcast and forthcoming book commented: “It’s no exaggeration to say that this is the biggest shake up in the world of work in a hundred years. We should recognise that this is a very complex time and that none of us are going to feel comfortable about it and none of us have the answers….We’re all in a giant experiment.”

 The Moneypenny survey also gives a strong indication of returning business confidence, as 63% of businesses surveyed expect call volumes to increase once more staff return to the office and the economy re-opens. Again larger companies are more confident than smaller ones: 72% of companies with more than 500 employees expect call volumes to rise, compared with just 59% of companies with 100-249 employees.

Business confidence also seems to vary by sector: 75% of financial firms expect their call volumes to increase, while 72% of arts and culture businesses expect customer calls to increase, perhaps because they will be able to fully open in June. In contrast, only 57% of sales and marketing companies expect call volumes to rise.

While businesses may be confident about the return to work, the survey by Moneypenny, which handles more than 20 million calls and live chats for 21,000 businesses each year, found that business handling of communications during the pandemic was less than ideal. Almost half of companies turned their switchboards onto 24/7 voicemail throughout lockdown, while 30% admitted to trusting onsite security to answer calls and a third removed phone numbers from their website altogether.

Figures also reveal that just 18% currently outsource their switchboard and the majority of organisations (49%) rely on reception or front-of-house teams to manage switchboards while juggling other duties. Only 15% planned to invest in outsourced switchboard support to cope with expected demand.

Joanna Swash, Group CEO at Moneypenny, said: “It’s great to see business confidence returning and it will be interesting to see how many companies stick with their plans on returning to work, which our survey shows are almost equally divided between full office working, full home working, and a hybrid system.”

“This data is yet another reminder of the kneejerk reactions so many businesses made in the shift to remote working. At a time when consumers needed more support than ever, a worrying number of companies failed to provide adequate customer service support and put their reputation at risk in the process. Over a year down the line, diverting calls to mobile, passing the responsibility onto building security staff, or actively discouraging people from calling, simply isn’t good enough. The world of work has changed and with 65% companies planning to continue to offer remote or hybrid working over the next six months, it’s crucial to ensure systems and processes are up to the task.”

For more information about how Moneypenny supports businesses, visit www.moneypenny.com/uk/