How effective is working from home?

The 2020 global pandemic has seen a huge transformation in the way most people work. The norm is now considered as ‘working from home’ for millions of people across the world and most people by now, have started asking themselves, “Am I more or less productive?”

We took a look at Linkedin’s UK Workforce Confidence Index and the majority of workers in the UK feel that they can work effectively from home and that their wider industries can operate effectively based on remote work, too. Two thirds (66%) of those surveyed by LinkedIn said they can be effective when working remotely, while 55% said they believe their industry as a whole can operate effectively with people working remotely.

These findings are part of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index, a biweekly survey asking professionals across the UK how they feel about their jobs, finances and career outlook. UK confidence has been holding steady at +13, on a scale of -100 to +100, based on the most recent results from 2,215 professionals.

Looking across April, it come as no surprise that healthcare services roles were the most confident. This group felt particularly optimistic about their job security, which is understandable given that healthcare workers are currently in such high demand as part of the Covid-19 response.

The report reflects how UK professionals feel across 3 core areas: Job Security, Financial Wellbeing and Career Outlook. This was measured from -100 to 100.

When it comes to people’s jobseeking expectations, those working in sales are the most pessimistic, with 77% of this group expecting the number of available jobs to fall in the next two weeks.

Optimism among active jobseekers in general appears to have fallen – when asked in the most recent survey about their confidence in their ability to get or hold onto a job, the result was a score of -7 on the index, down from -2 in the previous edition.

MD, Scott Murphy from HdE TALENT says “As you can see, there seems to be a real lack in confidence and uncertainty within the technology, recruitment and sales sectors. Having worked closely with both clients and candidates alike within these sectors during the lockdown, the main doubts we are seeing are coming from commission-based roles where pipeline may have been frozen or the fact that a number of these positions rely heavily on face to face contact, with some companies not adapting quickly enough to change their processes or technological capabilities. Personally, I put these figures down to confidence and predict a change in mindsets as we enter the second half of the year.”

The research also found that those at director level or above are pessimistic about the short-term outlook of their organisations, with only 22% saying they think their company will be better off in the next six months, but 45% saying they believe it will be worse off. In comparison, among ‘individual contributors’, defined as those in non-management roles, 18% believe their firms will be better off, but 37% think they will be worse off.

Keen to read more? See this article on how How positive are your workers right now?