Remote working has mixed impact on work-life balance for council staff

The proportion of UK local authority staff working from home increased to 82 percent during the coronavirus pandemic, compared to just five percent before, according to new research from public sector IT association Socitm.

As the UK transitions out of lockdown and more employees return to workplaces and from furlough, the membership group says its survey findings suggest that an office base five days a week is not necessary for many council workers, and that better technology provision and training are required.

The report, which is based on over 2,500 responses in May and June, found that 46 percent said remote working had improved their work-life balance and 43 percent believed it had made them more productive in their roles.

However, of the 54 percent that had not experienced better work-life balance, the majority reported having additional workloads due to employees being on furlough or having to adapt to working on unfamiliar projects.

Over 80 percent are now using office collaboration and video-conferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Skype, compared to 30 percent before – although 78 percent have received no training on them.

Data sharing

Eight in ten said they have all the ICT tools they require to do their job well but the majority of these included only basic equipment such as a computer, monitor, keyboard and telephone. More specialist software and programmes caused issues for some respondents.

Most respondents also said their internet connection was an issue when working from home. Other problems experienced included firewall capacity for VPN, outdated software on personal or company-provided laptops, and issues connecting to organisational online tools due to the high number of users.

Socitm said a major concern highlighted at the start of the lockdown was around data-sharing between colleagues with the shift to remote working, particularly regarding compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This has not had as big an impact as expected, according to the research. Only 11 percent of respondents said they had needed to change the way they share data with colleagues; 17 percent in the way they share to people outside their organisation; and only eight percent experienced problems in data-sharing in relation to delivering services.

Ultimately, 42 percent of local authority respondents said the service they provided had adopted new ways of working that brought benefits to users. However, 62 percent highlighted that parts of or whole services had to be paused or stopped during the lockdown, with housing and social care being hit the hardest.

Further, only nine percent of respondents have been involved in service design or planning of new software since lockdown.

“Seismic change”

Sandra Taylor, Immediate Past President at Socitm and Assistant Director of IT and Digital at Worcestershire County Council, said: “I genuinely think that at the end of this, our councils will be different – and I think that’s a good thing. We have catapulted staff into the digital age over the last few weeks. Overall, staff are working productively and efficiently from home, with the various digital tools enabling workshops, collaboration, training and even the successful induction of staff who have joined us during the crisis.

“What is happening is probably the most seismic change in modernising the public sector any of us have experienced, and after months staff will not want to go back to how they worked before. When we emerge from this, from an IT, modernisation and transformation perspective, things will be better.”

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