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It's becoming increasingly clear that one of the longer-term consequences of the coronavirus pandemic will be a permanent change in the way in which many of us work.
After having gone through several months of enforced home-working, it seems many people are not keen on a return to the traditional office-based nine-to-five. For instance, one study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found the percentage of regular home workers in the UK is set to double compared to pre-pandemic levels, from 18 per cent to 37 per cent.
For most people, the new normal will be 'hybrid working', where they combine time in the office with remote working. Indeed, a survey by HR firm Adecco suggested more than three-quarters of employees (77 per cent) favour this approach.
But in order for this to be successful, many companies will have to change how they operate. In particular, the way they communicate with remote workers and how people in multiple locations interact with key applications will need close attention, and this means the role of the network will be vital.
Coping with more bandwidth demands
For instance, one key issue for many firms will be how to ensure home-based workers can connect directly with their colleagues in the office. The solution for this is likely to lie in tools such as videoconferencing in order to maintain face-to-face communications.
As such, demand for high-bandwidth, low latency services is expected to rise significantly in the coming years. If firms have multiple employees engaging in such calls simultaneously throughout their office, this can quickly add up to put strain on their network.
At the same time, firms will likely need to invest in cloud-based tools that can be accessed from anywhere in order to provide the same tools to office and home-based employees. These will also need strong connectivity to function effectively, especially if firms need to upload large files or access services in real-time.
Therefore, solutions that can guarantee high speeds and no bottlenecks will be a must. For many companies, this may mean they'll need to upgrade to services such as full fibre-to-the-premises where possible.
However, coverage of this remains patchy, so turning to support such as the government's Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme may be a necessity for many companies to ensure they can improve their connectivity.
A more mobile way of working?
Other factors may require companies to rethink the office space itself, which may also have an effect of connectivity. For example, if firms will have a significant percentage of their staff working remotely on any given day, they may consider moving to smaller premises and using solutions like hot-desking to save on overheads such as rent and utilities.
This may in turn mean more workers are using wireless devices such as laptops or tablets when they are in the office if they don't have any fixed workstations. Therefore, office Wi-Fi tools will have to be up to the task of coping with more connections without compromising on performance.
A reliance on fast home broadband
Not all the connectivity challenges of the new hybrid way of working may be solvable by network managers, however. One potential barrier to the success of this strategy could be poor-quality broadband for individuals who are working from home.
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of high-quality broadband connections to the UK's economy, but while great efforts are being made to ensure as many people as possible have access to the fastest possible technologies, there is still a long way to go. Indeed, according to the latest figures from Ofcom, only 14 per cent of UK premises are currently able to access this technology.
To ensure this does not hamper productivity, firms may need to ensure their workers are able to access decent broadband before agreeing to more permanent hybrid working, or even considering subsidising faster broadband services to ensure their work will not be disrupted.
