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A survey of almost 800 housing association staff members has found nearly eight in 10 are satisfied with working from home.
Of the 795 workers from six English housing associations who responded to a survey carried out by Trent & Dove Housing, 79% said they were satisfied with working from home, compared to just 9.2% who said they were dissatisfied.
Respondents were also asked to provide information on how they travelled to work pre-lockdown, including the method of travel and the amount of money spent.
Based on this information, Trent & Dove calculated that 288 tonnes of CO2 could be saved each year if those who responded to the survey remained working from home full-time.
They would also get back an average of 24 working days per year in commuting time if they worked from home instead of travelling to the office, and save £1,186.84 per year – the equivalent of a 4.2% increase on the average UK annual wage.
Reflecting on the response to the COVID-19 crisis by their employers, a large majority (93.8%) of respondents said they felt their organisation had adapted well to the new ways of working introduced during the pandemic, while 88.2% said they themselves had adapted well.
When asked whether they would like to work from home more often in the future, 79.5% of respondents said they would.
Only 36.6% of employees said they felt they would need a central office to conduct their work effectively in the future.
The top benefits cited by respondents of working from home included fewer distractions (64.4%), more time to do personal or family activities (54.4%), frequent updates from their organisations (50.3%), and more time to do physical activity (43.9%).
Meanwhile, challenges associated with working from home included social isolation (47.5%), communication with coworkers (36.7%), issues with physical workspaces (36.4%) and maintaining positive mental health (35.1%).
All housing associations whose employees responded to the survey are part of Research Users in Social Housing. The research was co-sponsored by Clarion Housing Group.