Today sees the launch of the final report of the Inclusive Remote and Hybrid Working Study! Inclusive Remote and Hybrid Working Study_final report

We wish to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who completed our UK-wide survey or took part in an interview.

It’s also great to see coverage of our final report in the Guardian newspaper!  Decline in remote jobs risks shutting disabled people out of work, study finds | Disability | The Guardian

The study explored disabled remote and hybrid workers’ perspectives on how these ways have working have influenced their health, personal and working lives. We also explored organisational perspectives on how remote and hybrid models have been implemented since the pandemic.

This is timely research. The disability employment gap is substantial (standing at 29.5 percentage points) and has changed little in decades. Rates of ill-health and economic inactivity have seen huge growth since the pandemic. Halving the disability employment gap alone would achieve the government’s ambition to increase national employment to 80%.

Key findings from our study:

1,221 disabled remote and hybrid workers completed our UK-wide survey and 45 were interviewed. Most reported that remote or hybrid working had positively impacted their:

  • mental health, physical health and ability to manage impairments/health conditions
  • work-life balance, caring or parenting responsibilities
  • productivity and ability to complete tasks.

Those working remotely more often were more likely to report positive impacts. Reports of a negative impact on physical health increased as time spent working from home declined.

Why did we find these positive impacts?

  • Most participants felt their home was more suited to their needs than the office. Working remotely often made it easier to focus, engage in self-care, and work around pain, fatigue and mobility issues. For some, this supported their job retention and reduced their sick leave.

We found important implications for recruitment and retention:

  • Only 1.6% wanted to return to solely onsite working.
  • 85% of disabled workers reported having access to remote or hybrid working would be essential or very important if looking for a new job.
  • 79% would not apply for a job without remote options.

This shows clear demand for remote and hybrid roles, yet our analysis of Adzuna job vacancy data shows fully remote jobs have declined since 2020-21, and growth of hybrid job vacancies has stalled.

Disabled young people were more likely than older workers to report that remote/hybrid working had positively impacted their productivity, career progression, job security, job satisfaction and participation in training/work opportunities.

We also identified important challenges:

  • 47% of disabled remote/hybrid workers had not received in full their requested reasonable adjustments, placing them at risk of work-related illness and injury.
  • Black and minority ethnic workers and less affluent workers were significantly less likely than white or more affluent workers to report remote/hybrid working had positive outcomes for their health and employment.

We also interviewed 45 organisational leaders and managers about how they had implemented remote and hybrid working. Many had implemented these models to support recruitment, retention and organisational wellbeing in recognition of increased demand from workers for flexible working conditions. The organisations reported that productivity had been maintained or improved since implementing remote or hybrid models.

Policy implications:

Our findings reveal the importance of disabled people having access to remote and hybrid working opportunities for their health, employment and productivity. While not a panacea, expanding access to remote and hybrid working should be included in Government actions to address the disability employment gap by strengthening job entry and retention, including in its efforts to address the recommendations of the Mayfield Keep Britain Working Review.

The Government wants to support more disabled people into work and tackle health-related economic inactivity. To achieve this, it is imperative that it:

  • Ensures that employers address onsite accessibility.
  • Expands the availability of remote and hybrid jobs (and other forms of flexible working) to boost disabled people’s job opportunities.
  • Ensures employers consider remote/hybrid working when implementing reasonable adjustments.
  • Ensures employers address workplace inaccessibility, which can pose a barrier to onsite working.
  • Fully invests in the Access to Work scheme to ensure disabled workers to better support disabled workers and job applicants to work in remote or hybrid roles.