Remote working to contribute £74 billion to UK economy by 2020, according to Thread

A new report by the UK’s first solely remote working marketing consultancy, Thread, reveals that working from home contributes £18.5 billion to the UK economy each year. This is expected to soar to £74 billion by 2020 when it is estimated that half of the UK workforce will work remotely.

The study found that working from home is becoming more acceptable by employers and is no longer considered a benefit by employees, but a make or break condition of employment for many. A recent study of the UK workforce by Flexjobs revealed that almost a third of people would quit a job due to lack of flexibility. This has risen by 15 per cent over the past three years.

Working from home is proven to increase productivity by an average of 16 per cent, resulting in an average boost of £4,416 per employee per year. Additionally people that work from home are significantly more likely to ‘love’ their job than their office-bound counterparts and consider themselves to have a satisfactory work/life balance.

“When working at traditional marketing consultancies we noticed that we lost so much talent due to the inflexibility of the traditional office-located model. People emigrated, moved to the country, retired or went off to have children. However, many of them would have stayed if they could have worked from home,” commented Richard Calvert, Co-Founder of Thread.

“With modern technology we felt we could build a consultancy where we all worked from home, meeting up virtually whenever we need to. Not having an office was nerve-wracking initially but it soon became the norm. It means that we can pass on our cost savings to our clients and build solutions around their needs, whilst also offering our team a job that suits their individual situation. This is truly modern working and businesses that don’t adapt will find themselves with a talent shortage.”

Source: Thread

  Economy, Flexjobs, Marketing, Remote Working, Report, Research, Study, Thread, UK