John Lewis has instructed its corporate staff to increase their time spent in the office, as the retailer seeks to remain competitive with its rivals. A letter addressed to head office employees stated that they are expected to be working 'more in person than not', which includes being in the office or engaging with suppliers and customers.
Why the change?
The company believes these adjustments will help boost revenue and deliver 'better outcomes'. It noted that many of its competitors have 'noticed improvements in collaboration and culture alongside improved business performance as a result of a hybrid model'. John Lewis specified that this hybrid model would 'allow for more time in person while still enjoying the benefits of working time at home too'.
The move comes after John Lewis, which also owns Waitrose, reported a loss of £21 million last year, compared with a pre-tax profit of £97 million the year before. Central office teams, including those in HR and finance, are expected to 'spend more of their working week collaborating face to face with their team and others they work alongside'.
Office space adjustments
John Lewis is exploring options to 'create more space' in its offices to accommodate more regular in-person attendance. A spokesperson for John Lewis commented: 'While some in our industry are returning to the office full time, our policy hasn't changed, and we are committed to the flexibility that comes with a hybrid approach.'
Working from home and fertility
This policy shift coincides with a new report suggesting that working from home can boost fertility, prompting calls for employers to allow remote work to help address Britain's falling birth rate. A working paper by academics from King's College London and Stanford University estimates that lifetime fertility rises by an average of 0.32 children per woman when both partners work from home at least once a week.
In the United States, the increase can be as high as 0.5 children per woman. Similarly, men who work from home at least partially are statistically more likely to have children, especially if their partner does the same. The paper suggests that working from home could contribute to as much as eight per cent of births in the US.
Research findings
The 52-page paper, based on data from surveys of working arrangements worldwide, concludes that flexible working makes family planning easier by, for example, removing the need to arrange childcare. 'Combined with the evidence presented in this paper and other studies, we conclude that WFH makes it easier to balance career and family, which may be why it has positive effects on fertility rates,' the paper states. 'For societies faced with undesirably low birth rates, WFH can thus yield societal benefits that go beyond any direct benefits to employees and employers.'
Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, a lecturer in economics at King's and an author of the paper, argues that allowing hybrid working would be a more straightforward way to boost births than government interventions like tax incentives. He also highlights the financial savings from reduced work-associated costs as an incentive: 'Financially, if you work from home two or three days a week, you save quite a bit of money. When you work from home, all the childcare-related duties become much easier because you have a lot of flexibility around your schedule.'
