The revolution of work

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a seismic impact on the world of work, with millions of people told to work from home, engagement with clients and networks going virtual, and business models rapidly shifting to meet different customer needs. But whilst the pandemic continues to pose severe challenges, it has also uncovered a wealth of opportunities for businesses to thrive in a post-COVID-19 world.

This report is based on a survey of UK businesses carried out by CBI Economics, on behalf of Nexus, the University of Leeds’ innovation hub. The survey was designed to examine the impact of COVID-19 on innovation, collaboration, use of workspace and future ways of working. The report reveals key insights from the survey on the experience of businesses during the pandemic and their expectations for the future, and associated challenges and opportunities for businesses post-COVID-19, including:

• Radical change as 93% of firms plan to adopt hybrid working models and only 5% expect to work entirely from an office
• Presentation of key challenges and proposed solutions for how businesses can make the most of this mix of physical workspaces and home-working given the clear benefits and limitations of both uncovered by the survey
• Discussion on how businesses can build and maintain a strong company culture in a hybrid world, a key challenge going forward according to the survey results
• Suggestions on how to overcome barriers to innovation in a critical post-crisis period where innovation is more important than ever.

Join fellow business leaders to discuss the findings alongside CBI Chief UK Policy Director, Matthew Fell at our online event on Wednesday 15 September.

You can also access a digital version of report and find out more about Nexus.