In this week's podcast, we’re talking to Imogen Osborne, founder of The Pulse Business about a research project she has undertaken into face-to-face and virtual working environments post-COVID.

2 mins Imogen talks through the results of the latest research looking at the UK PR sector’s current approach to hybrid working.

8 mins Is a hybrid model a tougher model to integrate employees than an all-virtual model or an all-in-the-office working model?.

9.30 mins PR is not in a bubble in the hybrid working debate - how are other sectors approaching the issue?

10 mins Imogen discusses Google’s - working from home pay reduction calculator and compares it to Facebook, Amazon and Deloitte’s complete flexibility approach.

15 mins Has working from home had a positive or negative impact on PR people’s mental health?

19 mins What are the implications of career development and training in PR of working from home?

What have you seen as the biggest challenges of returning to the office? 

21 mins Do employees want to work from home, hybrid, or in the office?

22 mins “There are some employees who have grown very comfortable with the working from home model and that is hard to let go of.”

23 mins Is there an element of being careful what you wish for here? If employees don’t need to be in the office might your employer just as well employ cheaper, highly educated employees from another country?

26 mins Office design has changed already—lots of PR firms seem to be taking a members club approach. Is that going to work in reality?

28 mins Does the propensity for working from home essentially come down to the length of your commute?

30 mins Is the jump to hybrid working a more difficult integration than the one to pure virtual working?