More and more employees are turning to hybrid working (opens in new tab) as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.
New data from Slack has found 70% of workers believing hybrid work has helped them deal with rising costs, as they now spend less on food and transport to a physical office.
The study also found hybrid working has become such an integral part of most people’s lives that two-thirds (66%) say they would likely start looking for a new job if their current employer stopped offering it.
Hybrid working advantages
Overall, Slack’s study of over a thousand UK workers found the majority (73%) believe hybrid work is here to stay and 53% think businesses should operate on a digital-first approach.
The company has been vocal in pushing its idea of a “digital HQ (opens in new tab)“, where companies look to do away with physical offices, and unsurprisingly found that many of its survey respondents would also be in favor of such an idea.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) said they believed a digital HQ would be vital in making hybrid work a success, while 73% agreed having such a policy could give businesses a competitive advantage.
So-called “asynchronous work”, where communication doesn’t happen in real time, is also growing in popularity. Over two-thirds (69%) said they appreciated the extra time it gave them to compose a reply, and a similar proportion (64%) said it boosted productivity due to not needing to wait for others to complete their work.
Elsewhere, the study also found that hybrid working could also be helping shift opinion on bigger issues, namely the move towards a four-day working week, with almost 9 in 10 (86%) respondents said they would prefer to work more hours in fewer days
“The way we work has changed, and we are never going back,” said Chris Mills, Head of Customer Success, EMEA, at Slack. “That’s why all businesses should be introducing and prioritising a digital HQ.”
