Flexible working arrangements double in less than a year

Publishers are twice as likely to be able to work from home in the wake of the pandemic, according to statistics from the Publishers Association's latest workforce survey.

After surveying 14,122 employees from 71 businesses for its latest publishing workforce report, the PA found the proportion of respondents who are able to work from home had sky-rocketed from 40% before the first UK lockdown in March 2020 to 89% when its research was carried out between July and October 2020.

The proportion of respondents who had the ability to work flexitime or flexible working was shown to have increased too, from 30% to 41% after the first lockdown.

Meanwhile the proportion of respondents who had no flexible working arrangements fell from 22% to just 4% after the first lockdown.

However the report did not did not indicate how long-term the new working arrangements are intended to be.

Publishers have been vocal in their support of employees through flexible working arrangements over the past year, not only to comply with government guidance to tackle the spread of Covid-19 but to support working parents who are also home-schooling children.

Longer term, both Bonnier Books UK and Bloomsbury have committed to offering flexible working for all staff even after the coronavirus crisis eases, allowing employees to work up to three days a week from home.

Other c.e.o.s of major houses have also spoken about the benefits of home and flexible working in their predictions for the future earlier this year, indicating such arrangements will become more commonplace beyond the pandemic.

"It is clear that the way we work will change, and we will be looking at how our spaces should adapt—we have seen that a more flexible way of working can be effective and this will be part of our make up going forward," said Charlie Redmayne, HarperCollins c.e.o. "Offices will remain an important part of how we work but remote working will also have a part to play."

Belinda Rasmussen, m.d. Macmillan Children’s, said: "We will continue to operate flexibly—even post-Covid—and will choose our preferred working environment according to the results we want and need to achieve, abolishing presentism once and for all. This is key for a part of the publishing industry that is even more dominated by women."