Financial services firm Hitachi Capital (UK) has conducted a survey that suggests a sizable majority of smaller service providers will look to restructure in favour of more remote working once the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided.
Eighty per cent of SMEs across the business service sector plan remote working post Covid-19, with on average 74 per cent of staff working in this industry are operating from home.
The invoice financing firm says its research also suggests that just over half (52 per cent) of UK business owners in all industries, and 40 per cent in business services, felt positive about employees carrying out their work remotely at the time when lockdowns were introduced.
Just three weeks later ,those figures changed to three quarters (75 per cent) of business owners feeling positive towards staff working from home and 62 per cent of business owners in the services sector feeling positive about the transition to remote working.
Four in five business service firms agreed that more working from home would help their business to become more successful in the future, and plan to implement some form of work from home policy following the lockdown period.
The firm’s survey shows that business sectors varied in their initial concerns.The cost of setting up the business remotely was the biggest worry for logistics businesses, while the punctuality of staff was the biggest concern for manufacturers.
Concerns about potential over-working or ‘burn out (44 per cent) and business owners taking a more hands-on approach (38 per cent) were other findings from the survey.