Hybrid working should be a joy and not a challenge, according to Steve Rafferty, VP International, RingCentral.
He made the comment during a chat with UC Today following a RingCentral study which looked into the attitude of UK workers towards hybrid working.
The company surveyed 1,002 UK workers aged between 21 and 65 to look into the productivity benefits of a hybrid working model over jobs based in an office full-time.
Less than one in ten (eight percent) of information workers told RingCentral that they want to be in an office every day, demonstrating the popularity of hybrid working.
As a result, Rafferty has highlighted that organisations need to ensure that they can give their employees a hybrid working environment.
He said: “A lot of organisations bought home working solutions during the pandemic, so there is a lot of pain at the moment around how employees can make the most of their working day whilst they are out travelling.
“There are a lot of challenges around that, and more than half of workers would change industry rather than working from an office.
“This is because of the stress of travelling to the office by braving the commute, which is really challenging in these times.
“Workloads have also gone up due to there being fewer people in the workforce because of the cost-of-living crisis, and there are high expectations on people over the amount of work they can do.
“So we’ve really got to help employers understand that there are solutions out there that make hybrid working a joy, and it shouldn’t be a challenge.”
As Rafferty mentioned, more than half of the workers surveyed (58 percent) said they would change jobs or industries to ensure they could work in a hybrid or remote working environment.
This is a trend he expects to see rise in the coming years, especially as organisations tailor their collaboration tools to suit the modern hybrid workplace.
Rafferty added:
“The first element is people are actually enjoying spending time with their families; there is nothing better on a Friday afternoon when the kids come home from school, you wrap up work at 5pm, and you’re done for the week rather than an hour and a half commute home.
“The second element is that a lot of the collaboration tools that were acquired during the pandemic are home working solutions; they are not built for hybrid or mobile working.
“So when you’re in the office, or you’re at home, the solutions are okay; however, when you’re travelling and still need to get the work done, it’s a struggle.
“We’ve been educating people that they can have the best of both worlds, and lots of customers are reviewing those pandemic panic buys to prepare for the next wave of products that are fit for purpose for the hybrid world.”
Rafferty recently responded to comments made by Tony Danker, Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who claimed most bosses “secretly” want their employees to return to work in the office.
Danker made the comments on BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson, where he said: “You ask most bosses; everybody secretly wants everyone to come back into the office.
“I just don’t think that’s going to happen overnight. I think we are all coping with this, but we’re going to be talking about this for a few years.”
Speaking at the end of January, Rafferty said: “The director general of the CBI, Tony Danker, has claimed that most bosses secretly want all staff to return to working in the office.
“Whilst this may be a desired approach for employees in certain sectors, our research, launched last week, revealed 32% of full-time office-based workers would prefer to be in the office just a few days a week.
“Our research has also found that hybrid working has a significant impact on productivity and contributes positively to a work-life balance.”
RingCentral also found that when discussing productivity and work-life balance, hybrid workers are more likely to say they feel more productive and have a better work-life balance.
