Before the pandemic, remote working was a niche practice, mainly used by higher-level employees, such as managers, and permanent homeworkers, such as in the tech or craft sectors. Lockdown forced large parts of the UK’s workforce into wholly remote working. As employers came out of lockdown and were still implementing social distancing, hybrid working (where work is done from a combination of work sites and remotely) became a new norm.
After the pandemic, UK organisations had to adapt to the major changes brought about by hybrid work (PDF), and employers adjusted their hybrid policies and practices as they better understood what worked for their activities and workforces.
This article looks at how hybrid working has been adopted in the UK and how it relates to government policies around employment and industrial strategy. It also draws upon recent inquiry work in the Lords, which has synthesised the evidence base.
Hybrid working in 2025
In October 2025, 27% of workers in Great Britain were working in some kind of hybrid arrangement (the Office for National Statistics does not currently break down the number of days per week worked remotely). A further 13% were working fully remotely.
These hybrid workers are more likely than average to have higher-level qualifications, to work full-time, to be London-based, and to be aged between 30 to 49.
The UK has the second-highest adoption of hybrid working in the world (after Canada), with the average worker working remotely for 1.8 days each week, according to the 2025 Global Survey of Working Arrangements. The authors of the survey suggested that the UK’s high adoption of hybrid working (PDF) could be due to its large services industry and longer period of lockdown, as well as to cultural factors.
Hybrid working may have lasted so long after lockdowns ended because of its benefits for both employees and employers. For employees, hybrid working can offer better work-life balance, and where it gives staff more control over the ordering of tasks, it can help them to craft ‘good work’; that is, more meaningful or satisfying work.
For employers, hybrid work can improve recruitment and retention of employees. Conversely, not all jobs can be done as effectively remotely, and within hybrid workforces, new starters can benefit from more in-person time during induction to support their learning. Concerns about organisational productivity have featured in discussions about how much hybrid time is optimal.
As employers become more proficient at hybrid working, their hybrid working practices have become more diverse, reflecting different organisational needs.
The House of Lords special inquiry on homeworking in the UK
In November 2025, the House of Lords committee on home-based working published its report Is working from home working?, which took evidence from employers, unions, academics, and the government. One of its headline findings was that hybrid working could bring benefits for both employers and employees, but that there is no “one size fits all” approach.
The productivity puzzle
The inquiry concluded that evidence did not point to either consistent productivity gains or losses for hybrid working. There are objective difficulties in measuring everyday outputs in knowledge-based work, such as architecture or engineering.
However, the inquiry heard evidence that hybrid working increases employment rates, particularly among parents and disabled people, which could improve productivity through increasing the labour supply. This may be particularly relevant to the government’s Get Britain Working policy to reduce economic inactivity.
The inquiry also heard that hybrid working offers economic gains for employers around recruitment and retention, saving employers money by increasing employee retention and reducing recruitment costs, where interviews can be held online.
Collaboration concerns and return to office mandates
The Lords’ inquiry investigated why some employers had issued ‘return to the office’ mandates. While some employers were reluctant to discuss mandates directly, they said they were concerned that remote working reduced opportunities for colleagues to collaborate. The inquiry concluded that these concerns could be addressed by coordinating ‘anchor days’, where colleagues who need to collaborate are organised to be in the office on the same day.
Many witnesses raised concerns that office days were being treated like remote days, with employees taking online calls in communal spaces, and that opportunities to connect were not optimised. The inquiry recommended that organisations’ office design and hybrid working policies are complementary, and that managers are trained in good hybrid practice.
Learning and implementation challenges for small to medium-sized enterprises
The inquiry highlighted that small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had unique needs around remote and hybrid working. The Institute of Directors noted that hybrid working was a valuable recruitment tool for SMEs that could not compete with larger organisations on pay. It could also save smaller employers money on office space.
However, SMEs have fewer resources than larger organisations and can struggle to invest in digital infrastructure to support hybrid work or provide specialist training for managers. The inquiry recommended the government address these challenges by developing bespoke SME guidance on hybrid management and protecting level 7 apprenticeships. These are the higher-level combined on-the-job and academic training that SMEs can utilise for management training.
Hybrid work and the policy agenda
Inquiry recommendations
While the inquiry did not recommend using regulation or legislation around remote and hybrid working, it did say that supporting good practice (such as through non-statutory guidance) can align with the government’s policy goals. For example, the government can consider how hybrid and remote work relate to its ‘Get Britain Working’ policy and ‘Connect to Work’ programme.
The inquiry also recommended that data on hybrid working be coordinated both across government and the research community.
Flexible work requests and the Employment Rights Bill
Hybrid working is one form of flexible working. Research has found that while hybrid working has tended to be organised informally, where this allows employers to change arrangements through ‘return to the office’ mandates, employees may be more motivated to formalise their hybrid working practices through flexible work requests.
The 2024 Employment Rights Bill and its supporting statutory guidance set out to provide clarity around when employers can reasonably reject a flexible working request. This further enhances the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023.
The inquiry welcomed the government’s intention to collaborate with Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) on developing statutory guidance to define when rejecting a flexible work request is ‘reasonable’, and to consider the consequences for employment tribunals (for example, increasing caseload).
2025 industrial strategy
Several of the ambitions of the government’s 2025 industrial strategy, which prioritises growth and innovation in eight high-growth sectors, may also support hybrid working.
For example, the strategy aims to invest in digital infrastructure, such as full-fibre broadband and 5G, which can make hybrid working more efficient (and was recommended by the Lords committee). Likewise, investments in digital skills and training can enhance remote and hybrid working capacities, such as online digital collaboration, as well as widening access to hybrid working.
The industrial strategy’s commitment to regional growth and local hubs could also address uneven geographical access to hybrid working.
About the authours: Jane Parry is thematic research lead for business, economics and trade
Photo by: by Christopher, via Adobe Stock