Legal advice | Some staff will avoid using heating while WFH this winter - can HR help?

The first few months of the new year are typically colder than most and this is a typical time that people wrap up warm and crank up the thermostat.

Yet, as more people continue to work from home in light of Government guidance and with energy bills continuing to soar – the energy industry warned that energy bills could go up as much as 50% in the spring as the UK faces a “national crisis” over rising wholesale electric and gas prices, as was reported by the Guardian – some workers are reluctant to turn up the heating, and understandably so.

This is according to research from Electric Radiators Direct which found that more than one in five UK employees said that they will not turn the heating on while working from home this winter in light of the Omicron variant. The new study found that this is largely down to worries about the cost of energy.

Moreover, 48% said that they will be more mindful of their overall energy consumption, and almost one-fifth (19%) said that they will invest in smart heating solutions to help them better monitor energy usage this winter.