Almost half of firms in Scotland now have hybrid working, figures show

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed Scotland has a higher rate of firms using this model than the rest of the UK.

North of the border almost a third (32.6%) of businesses said their employees normally work from home one or two days a week – with 16.5% of companies reporting staff do this three or four days a week.

This means hybrid working is in place in 49.1% of firms, compared with 42.7% of companies across the UK.

Almost half of Scottish businesses now have hybrid working in place, allowing staff to do their job from home for part of the working week.

In Scotland almost two fifths (38.3%) of firms said their staff did not work from home – with this lower than the 42.3% recorded for the UK as a whole.

The figures come from research done by the ONS involving 9.207 firms in the UK including some 1,200 firms north of the border.

Hybrid presentation expert and former MSP Gavin Brown said the findings showed habits developed during the pandemic were here to stay.

Mr Brown, director of the company Speak With Impact, said: “Unless you work every day in the office, or indeed every day at home, you are a hybrid worker.

“These figures show us that now accounts for about half of all workers in Scotland, and it illustrates just how drastically things have changed in a couple of years.”

While he said the “transformation” in business practice “must be adjusted to”, Mr Brown also stressed it provides “a great deal of opportunity”.

He continued: “If Scottish businesses can excel in this hybrid world by maximising in-person and virtual opportunities in tandem, it could provide a real boost to our economy and to individual prospects generally.”

According to data published last month, people are still travelling less and exercising more than they did before the pandemic, despite the scrapping of most Covid-19 restrictions earlier this year, new analysis suggests.

Working habits appear to have undergone a permanent change – though the amount of time spent sleeping and resting has returned to pre-pandemic levels.