According to the research from TalkTalk, 40% of office workers have moved home or considered moving during the pandemic. The network data, which covers the past year, showed that the south east and east of England have seen an increased internet usage of 46%.
Speaking exclusively in the latest issue of Land Mobile, Wayne Mason, UK and Ireland B2B lead at Logitech, said “it is becoming increasingly unlikely that companies will go back to the old way of doing things”. He said: “As the world returns to normal, we’ll see a movement towards ‘flexible as standard’, or hybrid working. [This will be due to] acknowledged productivity benefits, as well as improvements to work/life balance.”
The new TalkTalk report supports this belief as the researchers claimed that more than eight in 10 (86%) business leaders interviewed said their employees were in favour of flexible working policies, while 80% agree that it’s a good idea for the business and employees. Alongside this, 85% of them expect to operate some form of hybrid working system moving forward.
A fast reliable internet connection is essential to this according to the report, with 85% of respondents saying they’d be willing to pay more for a home with access to full fibre, high speed broadband.
This made a strong internet connection the most important factor when choosing where to move with living closer to family (27%), finding a more suitable home working space (22%) and living somewhere greener (18%) other popular reasons for moving.
The UK government has recently announced plans to expand gigabyte-capable broadband across the country as part of the Queen’s Speech. Openreach has pledged to cover 25 million premises by 2026, while new provider Upp recently announced plans to invest £1bn to enhance broadband coverage in the east of England.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Jonathan Kini, managing director of TalkTalk consumer and business, said: “We’re proud to play our part in helping people work from home during the pandemic, not just as an employer, but as a provider of the fast, reliable connectivity needed to embrace this shift.
“With hybrid working set to continue, we’re investing more in keeping our network resilient to meet increased demand. And as part of our commitment to helping Britain build back, we’re rolling out full fibre plans to homes and businesses across the UK at pace - powering this new era of hybrid working.”
The research comes on the same day as Ofcom’s ‘A Year Lived Online’ report found that UK adults spent more than three-and-a-half hours (217 minutes) online each day in 2020 – more than an hour longer than in Germany and France and 30 minutes more than Spain.
