HR experts are predicting that flexible and mobile working schedules will become more common next year than actually working from an office.

A report produced by Lancaster University’s Work Foundation argued that flexible working could potentially lead to increased productivity in employees. This would in turn improve employee wellbeing, help retain talent, attract new talent and reduce accommodation costs.

The report is called Working anywhere: A winning formula for good work? and predicts that by 2020 approximately 70% of employees will be working under flexible schedules. The research looked at 500 managerial level employees working for medium to large businesses.

The benefits of working from a mobile location were understood by about 44% of respondents who believed it allowed employees to get more work done. Forty-two percent of them felt like this type of scheduling helped them (employees) feel trusted and 35% of them felt it was essential to maintaining a certain work life balance.

The author of the report claims that the evidence showed that there are clear trends towards a more flexible way of working in the United Kingdom. Organisations that have already adopted flexible working for its employees claim to have an improvement in productivity while reducing staff turnover.

The report did remain unbiased as well. While singing flexible working praises, the report also made sure to highlight barriers to the change. Over one third of managers believed that mobile working would make them feel disconnected from their teams and felt it could block the ability to successfully oversee work.

Human resource professionals have also come forward and said that these kinds of schedules could make their jobs harder. A shift towards flexible working scheduling that would affect the masses would require changes to performance management and employee terms and conditions.