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Almost half of legal teams will keep changes to remote working policies
New research shows the extent to which COVID-19 has and will continue to impact upon the workplace policies of corporate counsel.
Jerome Doraisamy
According to a flash poll from the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), which received responses from 249 of its members, nearly one in two (46.5 per cent) of in-house lawyers said their companies will keep the changes to their remote working policies moving forward.
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A similar number (44.1 per cent) said their companies will revert back to the pre-pandemic working conditions once the “new normal” arrives, while just under one in 10 (9.4 per cent) reported that their companies had not changed their policies on remote working in the wake of COVID-19.
The key takeaway from respondents, ACC mused, is that “remote work is here to stay and that the expansion of telework is likely to limit in-person meetings and business travel”.
“This informal flash poll is further indication that the impacts of COVID-19 on telework and remote work policies are likely to last much longer than first anticipated,” said ACC Australia and Pacific vice-president and managing director Tanya Khan.
“From conferences and business travel to WFH, organisations are looking for, and helping create, a ‘new normal’ that works for employees and leadership alike.”
Elsewhere in the poll, almost all respondents (90.6 per cent) reported changes to working from home policies due to COVID-19, with over three in 10 (31.3 per cent) saying that they will require less office space in the “new normal”.
Aiding such sentiments is the fact that those who feel “very comfortable” with videoconferencing has jumped from 22.1 per cent before the pandemic to a new high of 70.7 per cent at present.
The findings follow those of the COVID-19 Business Confidence survey, commissioned by Lawyers Weekly’s sister brand MyBusiness, which explored the extent to which legal professionals across the board are seeking to return to the office.
