What started as a temporary measure to deal with the outbreak of the coronavirus has evolved to a new way of working which has revolutionised the traditional 9-5 workday and become a permanent fixture. Yes, we are talking about remote working; the contentious issue that is dividing employers and employees across the nation.

According to recent data compiled by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), 84% of workers who worked from home because of the coronavirus pandemic planned to continue with a mix of working at home and working in the office.

For many employers and employees there is a disconnect when it comes to remote work, with employers increasingly insisting that staff spend more time in the office while workers want to remain at home for all or part of the working week.

Changing our way of working

“Depending on the industry, some leaders feel in-office working spurs more productivity, while others believe in-office working allows people to connect, create, and ignite more innovation,” suggests Weston Morris, director of global strategy for digital workplace solutions at Unisys, a global tech solutions company.

“From what I have seen, it all comes down to giving workers some level of control in where and how they want to work. Our research shows that 87% of employees believe a hybrid model creates a very or somewhat effective work environment, which could be the deciding factor in having a happy, engaged worker or not.”

Looking to the future

As the adage goes, you pay for what you get. Unisys also found that a salary increase is the best way to get 68% of workers who prefer fully remote working to come back into the office. That figure comes in at 63% for workers who prefer a hybrid model.

However, as inflation bites and tech companies continue to tighten their belts, increasing salaries across the board or on a case-by-case basis might not be feasible.

In this instance, Morris advocates that employee experience (EX) programmes can address the chasm and provide a more comprehensive view of how employees view their employer, their role, and how this relationship can develop in a mutually beneficial way.

“Companies with very mature EX programmes find their employees more engaged today than six months ago at a rate of 74%, compared to those with immature EX programmes, which came out to be about 24%,” he says.

“It was clear in our research that employees and employers feel that an EX programme significantly impacts employee productivity, talent retention, revenue, and profitability.”

Below are three jobs in companies that are committed to fostering a culture of remote and flexible working, and you can discover thousands of others on the Finextra Job Board.

Senior Software Development Engineer - Growth, GoCardless, London

Employees at GoCardless follow an adaptive working approach which allows you to work flexibly around your lifestyle. As a Senior Software Development Engineer you will drive product-led growth and work in a team that contributes to various codebases and improves activation rates to convert payers into customers. GoCardless uses React, TypeScript, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, and Google Cloud Platform, and while you do not have to meet every requirement, professional experience with coding is a must. View more details here.

Infrastructure Developer, Starling Bank, Cardiff

Starling workers have the option to keep to a hybrid pattern, working from home and one of its three offices, or fully remote. The Infrastructure Developer will develop and enhance existing tooling, primarily in Golang to support its infrastructure that spans across AWS and Google Cloud. You will develop clean and highly maintainable code, creating and improving existing infrastructure services and tooling, and leading projects from start to finish. You will also mentor and coach other team members on Golang best practices. Get more information here.

Data Analyst, Zilch UK

Zilch offers all its staff a hybrid working model, with three days per week spent at the London office. It is hiring a Data Analyst who will be passionate about the data domain, and as such is always looking for opportunities to improve processes and support stakeholders. Day-to-day you will work alongside data scientists, data analysts, data engineers, and analytics engineers, support business requirements for model and report building, enhancing, and optimising existing models and working to agile methodologies. Applicants should have a strong SQL background, experience in data visualisation and three-plus years experience as a data analyst working in a fast-paced environment. See the full job description here.

For thousands more opportunities across fintech, visit the Finextra Job Board today.