"Managers are much more positive about flexible working and staff working from home since the Pandemic" says new study

MANAGERS are much more positive about their staff working from home and working flexibly since lockdown says a new study undertaken jointly by the Equal Parenting Project at the University of Birmingham and the Work Autonomy, Flexibility and Work Life Balance at the University of Kent. The report titled:- 'Managing Employees during the Covid19 Pandemic - Flexible working and the future of work' is based on a UK wide survey with managers which aimed to understand the organisational perspective on managing home working since the UK Covid19 lockdown. During the Covid19 lockdown, many organisations have been forced to move the majority of their workforce to remote working, often at very short notice. In many cases these businesses had previously discouraged flexible working and had very little infrastructure in place to support these new ways of working. The question arises, what impact did this shift to home working have and what does this mean for the future of work?

To answer this question, the research team undertook a survey of managers between the 24 July to 11 August 2020. The sample consisted of managers from across the UK, an array of industries and all levels of management. In total, 742 managers completed the survey which involved questions around norms for working from home, attitudes toward working from home, trust, key learning experience what tools the organisation supplied to employees to enable them to work from home and what support was made available to the employees.

As the 1st academic piece of research exploring managerial experiences during the Covid19 Pandemic in the UK, this research discovered that 54.7% of managers reported over 80% of their employees have been working from home since lockdown. As a result of their management experiences during lockdown, fewer managers now believe that presenteeism and long working hours are essential to career progression within organisations. Many managers also reported that working from home increases productivity, concentration, and motivation due to their experiences in lockdown. 58.6% of managers surveyed said that working from home increases productivity whereas only 44.1% agreed with this statement before lockdown.

However, managers also saw some draw backs, with 58.7% of all those surveyed saying that working from home lead to isolation, and other citing issues around blurring of boundaries as key negative outcomes. Regardless, most managers now believe working from home will become much more commonplace in the future, with more jobs, including senior roles, being advertised as being available for flexible working and more support being made available for home working.

Commenting on the report Dr Holly Birkett, Co-Director of the Equal Parenting Project, at the University of Birmingham, said:- "The report shows managers are much more positive about working from home and flexible working, than they were before the Pandemic. Managers say their organisations are going to be more supportive of home working and flexible working in the future, including more likely to support working from home, job shares and part time working even for Senior roles. This change along with the breakdown of the presenteeism culture and the removal of a flexibility stigma, which existed before Covid19, could help improve employee wellbeing, help to support people to take on caring roles and break down many of the barriers women face to balancing career and family, with the potential to improve female representation on Boards and close the gender pay gap."

Overall, the data included in the report has shown that working from home has been commonplace since the initial lockdown and managers have faced a steep learning curve regarding how to manage remote teams often with very little support or guidance. Despite this, managers have been pleasantly surprised about the results with their teams generally performing really well during this time. While there have been some performance issues these were generally where this was already an issue prior to lockdown.

Dr Sarah Forbes, Co-Director of the Equal Parenting Project said:- "Due to positive experiences of working from home and with flexible working patterns amongst their staff, managers are keen to support more working from home and flexible working in the future. This could take the form of better flexible working policies and tools to facilitate this as well as training being readily available for managers to learn how to better support remote workers in their team. However, we also need to understand working remotely over long periods of time can also be very isolating and that some people much prefer working in an office environment."

Dr Heejung Chung, Principal Investigator of the Work Autonomy, Flexibility and Work-Life Balance Project at the University of Kent said:- "As we have also seen in our previous employee survey, the flexible working genie is out of the bottle; more workers want to work flexibly in the future, and as this report has shown, managers now see how flexible working can benefit companies. However, that shift will not be the same for all companies and for all workers. Government policies to help make that cultural shift, by introducing stronger rights to flexible working and better protection against discrimination for flexible workers may help this transition go smoothly after the Covid19 lockdown measures end."

The full findings and wider recommendation of the report will be announced by Dr Sarah Forbes, Dr Holly Birkett and Dr Heejung Chung at a webinar, on 26 November 2020, which has been organised by the Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business at the University of Birmingham. The webinar will also have presentations by:- Lauren Adams, HR Director at CBI , Daisy Hooper, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, at CMI, and Anthony Fitzpatrick, Employee Relations and Global Employment Policy Lead at Aviva will deliver organisational and managers' perspectives on experiences of remote working during the Pandemic and how these experiences are likely to change the future of work.

'Months of face mask misery' ahead for deaf people as only a quarter of the public know how to communicate with them

THE UK's 12 million deaf adults and 50,000 deaf children have "months of face mask misery" ahead because three in four people don't know how to communicate with them, new research suggests. Although lots of different communication techniques exist, the National Deaf Children's Society's latest poll of 2,027 adults showed just 23% knew how to communicate with a deaf person when wearing a face mask. The charity said that the results were very concerning, because while public health must take priority, deaf people would be left facing an even higher risk of isolation and loneliness. The poll, carried out by YouGov, also showed that the problem is far from unique to deaf people, with 89% of people saying they also struggle to understand someone in a face mask. 21% said it happens most or all of the time. However, the results also show positive news for deaf people because the general public are clearly very willing to help improve the situation.

84% said they would change their behaviour if it would help a deaf person, while 68% would lower their mask on public transport to speak to a deaf person, as permitted under Government guidelines. As a result, the National Deaf Children's Society is calling on people everywhere to:- "play their part" in helping include deaf people feel included in conversations and social interactions, which it says everyone will benefit from. The charity is also urging the general public to read its 5 top tips for communicating with deaf people, which include using clear face masks, writing things down and using apps to translate speech to text. It says that if the Government and businesses also help publicise the tips, the increased awareness will make a huge difference to deaf people's lives.

Susan Daniels OBE, Chief Executive of the National Deaf Children's Society said:- "These results will be very concerning for the UK's 12 million deaf adults and 50,000 deaf children. Face masks and coverings have made lip reading impossible and if people don't know how else to talk to us, even everyday events like going to work or School, visiting shops and taking public transport can be quite intimidating. However, what the public lack in knowledge they are making up for in enthusiasm and we must capitalise on this. My message to deaf people of all ages is to let someone know when you're struggling to understand them because there's a clear and widespread willingness to help you. The Government, businesses and the general public also need to play their part by taking our tips on board and helping us reach as many people as possible. A little deaf awareness will go a long way towards tackling the months of isolation and loneliness many deaf people are now facing."

James Watson-O'Neill, Chief Executive of Sign Health, said:- "These are difficult times for everyone, but face masks have brought new challenges for us as deaf people. When we can't read someone's lips or see their facial expressions, it really increases the communication barriers we face. However, while these statistics reveal a lack of knowledge, they also show just how willing people are to help. This cannot be underestimated and we'd ask everyone not just to read these tips, but to use them whenever they speak to a deaf person. It really will make all the difference."

Sign Health...

►  Sign Health is the Deaf health charity. Established in 1986 it supports Deaf people who use British Sign Language to communicate.

►  Sign Health provides a range of health and social care services across England, including registered care homes, community outreach, psychological therapy and domestic abuse support.

►  All of Sign Health's services are delivered by Deaf people to Deaf people in British Sign Language.

►  During the pandemic, Sign Health has set up:- BSLHealthAccess.co.uk which provides free access to BSL Interpreters online for use in any health setting 24 hours a day

►  Sign Health provides a BSL summary of every Downing St briefing on COVID-19 and has also translated much of government's information into BSL, including the latest letters written to the millions of Clinically Extremely Vulnerable people in England.

►  For more information, please visit:- SignHealth.Org.UK.