Working from home: just a pandemic solution?

We need your help. We have created a short survey looking at the effects of home working practices in the health communications and the biomedical industries. The survey (here) will close on 13th August 2021. 

At the start of 2020 many of us faced possible changes to the way we work as the COVID-19 virus went global. In many cases these changes involved some form of home working, lay-off or furlough. They were introduced quickly, leaving little time for contemplation, planning or preparation.

Shortly after the start of the pandemic we conducted to a survey to better understand how these changes had impacted on the lives of those working in the biomedical science industries and most (85%) reported a positive experience: they enjoyed time at home, liked the freedom, felt secure in their posts, and remained cheerful. Most established a daily routine, coped with an interesting workload and felt valued. However, this was not true for all, nearly a third reported feelings of loneliness and/or isolation. Others noted problems with vigour, rest, and concentration (you can find the survey report here). 

We are in a very different place than we were 12+ months ago. We know that working-from-home has been a widely adopted temporary pandemic solution, but how should we use it in the future? It is time to think seriously about where we are going. The key point to making intelligent decisions about knowing where we are, NOW. We hope that this is the insight that our survey could provide. 

As strategies are being considered for future working, employers will be asking themselves whether lessons learned during the pandemic may be translated into new working paradigms. We are asking for your help in better understanding the challenges that you and your colleagues have faced. We have put together this fully anonymous survey in the hope that you will feel able to share your experiences. 

Please spare us 10 minutes of your time. You can follow the link to the survey here. Make this your chance to have your voice noted in terms of how the 2020 pandemic affected you. Hopefully, your experience will guide working paradigms in a post-COVID world.

The survey is being run by Tim Hardman (Niche Science & Technology Ltd), Steven Walker (St Gilesmedical), Catherine Lee (Bedrock Health) and Peter Llewellyn (NetworkPharma). 

The survey is also being supported by the Pharmaceutical Contract Management Group, the Association for Human Pharmacology in the Pharmaceutical Industry and the European Federation For Exploratory Medicines Development.

We will prepare a report and share the findings as soon as possible via The MedComms Networking surveys page at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com/surveys.html but meanwhile if you have any questions, please contact us at info@niche.org.uk.