TL;DR
- The clearest benefit of working from home is time. The UK Office for National Statistics found that people working from home saved an average of 56 minutes that day by not commuting, and spent some of it on rest and exercise.
- Employees gain time, focus, flexibility and lower costs. Employers gain a wider talent pool, retention, and staff wellbeing. The ONS is careful to say that its data cannot show how home working affects productivity.
- The drawbacks are real: isolation, longer hours, harder starts for new people and the risk that remote staff are overlooked. They can be managed, but only on purpose.
Few changes to working life have been argued about as loudly as working from home. One camp points to empty commuter trains and happier staff. The other sees fading culture and new graduates learning their trade alone in a bedroom. Both are describing something real.
This article sets out the benefits of working from home for employees and for employers, with figures from the UK's Office for National Statistics. It then covers the drawbacks, who misses out and six steps that make home and hybrid working fair.
Remote work runs on clear outcomes. See how New Dynamics Goals & OKRs keep priorities visible wherever people are.
How common is working from home?
In Great Britain, hybrid working has settled in as a norm for a large minority. The Office for National Statistics reported in its article Who are the hybrid workers? that “more than a quarter of working adults in Great Britain (28%) were hybrid working in the autumn of 2024”. It added that working only from home has fallen since 2021, while a hybrid model “has become the ‘new normal’ for around a quarter of workers”.
Most of what follows applies both to people who work from home all the time and to those who split the week.
Benefits of working from home for employees
1. Time
This is the benefit with the best evidence. The ONS found that those working from home “saved an average of 56 minutes that day from not commuting”. Its time use data from March 2024 suggests where some of that time went: people who worked from home on a given day spent an average of 24 minutes more on sleep and rest and 15 minutes more on exercise, sports and wellbeing than those who worked away from home.
2. Focus
Many people find deep work easier without the interruptions of an open-plan office. This depends on the home. A quiet study and a kitchen table shared with two children are different workplaces.
3. Flexibility
Home working makes it easier to fit work around the school run, a delivery or a medical appointment. The ONS found that working parents were more likely to hybrid work (35%) than working non-parents (24%), and suggests that it may help “to facilitate childcare or working around the school day”.
4. Lower costs
No fares or fuel, and fewer bought lunches. Against that, set higher heating and electricity bills at home.
5. Access to work
For some disabled people, carers and people who live far from large employers, home working opens up jobs that were out of reach. This is a potential benefit. It depends on employers designing roles and adjustments well. See our diversity and inclusion guide.
6. Autonomy
Choosing where and, within limits, when to work gives people a sense of control over their day, which many value highly.
Benefits of employees working from home, for employers
1. Staff wellbeing
The ONS reports that “improved staff well-being” has continued to be one of the most frequently reported business reasons for using or planning to use more hybrid and home working, according to its Business Insights and Conditions Survey.
2. A wider talent pool
If the job can be done from anywhere, you can recruit from anywhere, including people who cannot move or commute.
3. Retention and attraction
Flexibility is a benefit that many candidates now expect. Withdrawing it can prompt people to look elsewhere. That is our observation. We are not citing a figure for it.
4. Lower property costs
Fewer desks are needed if people attend on different days. The saving is real only if the office is actually reduced, and shared desks bring their own friction.
5. Resilience
An organisation that can work remotely keeps going through rail strikes, snow and burst pipes.
6. Attention to outcomes
Managing people you cannot see forces clarity about what they are meant to achieve. Acas gives the example of an employer agreeing “to assess the quality of work done rather than the time an employee spends at their desk”. That discipline benefits office teams too. See our guide to job performance.
What about productivity?
Claims run in both directions, and good evidence is scarce. The ONS is careful on this point. It found that people working at home reported slightly less time spent working, by about 10 minutes, but said that it could not tell whether this was down to chance. It added: “We also can't say from this data how time use affects work productivity.”
Our advice is to measure your own outcomes, by team, before and after any change, and to be wary of anyone who is certain.
The drawbacks, and how to manage them
Isolation. The Health and Safety Executive warns in its guidance on stress and mental health for home workers that people “who are deprived of social contact through work can feel isolated or disconnected”. It advises employers to keep in regular contact, as a team and one to one. Our remote team building activities can help.
Longer hours. The HSE also notes that those working at home “can sometimes work longer hours, making them tired and stressed”. Encourage breaks and proper leave, and do not reward emails sent at midnight.
Blurred boundaries. When the office is the spare room, work never quite ends. Agree core hours and a time after which replies are not expected.
Harder starts. New starters and young employees learn a great deal by watching and overhearing. Acas advises employers to help new starters settle in “so that they do not feel isolated”, with a clear first-week schedule and introductions to colleagues.
Out of sight, out of mind. People who are seen less may be offered less: fewer stretch projects, less credit, slower promotion. Check the data on ratings and promotions by working pattern. See our unconscious bias examples.
Weaker ties between teams. People keep in touch with their own team and lose the chance encounters with others. Build those links deliberately.
The home itself. Not everyone has space, quiet, a good chair or reliable broadband. Employers' health and safety duties apply to home workers too.
Who misses out
Home working is unevenly spread, and that raises a fairness question inside many organisations. The ONS found that:
- 45% of managers, directors and senior officials followed a hybrid model, compared with 3% of people in elementary occupations and 3% in caring, leisure and other services;
- workers with a degree or equivalent were “10 times more likely to hybrid work than those with no qualifications (42% compared with 4% respectively)”;
- 29% of workers aged 30 and over were hybrid working, compared with 19% of those aged 16 to 29.
If office staff gain an hour a day and frontline staff gain nothing, resentment is understandable. Look for other kinds of flexibility for roles that must be done in person: shift swaps, predictable rotas, compressed hours or a say over start times. Our article on four-day week benefits discusses some of these.
The legal position in the UK
There is no right to work from home. GOV.UK's guide to flexible working says that all employees have the legal right to request flexible working, including a change to “where they work”, and that they can ask “from their first day in a job”. Employers must deal with requests in a “reasonable manner”. The rules are different in Northern Ireland. This is general information, not legal advice.
How to make working from home work: six steps
- Agree outcomes. Set clear goals and standards, and judge people on results. Acas advises employers to discuss and agree how performance will be managed and measured.
- Agree how you communicate. Acas recommends agreeing “how and when to communicate with each other”, and warns that constant or unnecessary contact can cause stress. Decide which tool is for what, and what counts as urgent.
- Keep regular contact. Hold a one-to-one at least fortnightly, and ask how the person is as well as how the work is. Our one-to-one meeting questions include prompts.
- Make office days worth the journey. Use them for collaboration, learning and relationships. A commute to sit on video calls pleases nobody.
- Treat locations equally. Share news with everyone at the same time, run meetings so that remote voices are heard, and check that opportunities are spread fairly.
- Look after health and the home set-up. Assess workstations, encourage breaks and watch for signs of overwork or isolation.
Frequently asked questions
What are the benefits of working from home?
For employees, the main benefits are time saved on commuting, easier focus, flexibility around family life, lower travel costs and more control over the day. The ONS found that home workers saved an average of 56 minutes a day by not commuting.
What are the benefits of employees working from home for employers?
Employers report improved staff wellbeing, and can gain a wider recruitment pool, better retention, lower property costs, more resilience to disruption and a sharper focus on outcomes. These gains depend on managing the drawbacks deliberately.
What are the disadvantages of working from home?
The main risks are isolation, longer hours, blurred boundaries between work and home, slower learning for new starters, weaker ties between teams and remote staff being overlooked for opportunities. Home set-ups also vary widely in space and comfort.
Are people more productive working from home?
The evidence is mixed, and it depends on the job, the person and the management. The ONS says plainly that its time use data cannot show how home working affects productivity. Measure outcomes in your own teams before drawing conclusions.
Do employees have a right to work from home in the UK?
No. Employees have a legal right to request flexible working, including a change to where they work, from their first day in a job. Employers must handle requests in a reasonable manner. The rules differ in Northern Ireland.
Is hybrid working better than fully remote?
Hybrid working keeps much of the time saving and flexibility while preserving some in-person contact for relationships and learning. It works best when office days have a clear purpose. Around a quarter of workers in Great Britain now follow a hybrid pattern.
Your next step: review one team's arrangement
- Ask one team what is working well about their current pattern, and what is not.
- Check that goals and communication norms are written down.
- Look at who has had stretch work and recognition recently, by working pattern.
- Agree one change, and review it in three months.
For policies, routines and communication norms for distributed teams, read and download our remote work guide. The guide is free to read, and the PDF uses our short download form.
Want goals, feedback and recognition visible to everyone, wherever they work? Book a New Dynamics demo and bring your current approach. You can also email contact@new-dynamics.com.
