While telecommuting became widespread during the pandemic, many employers want to put the brakes on the practice. To gain a better understanding of the subject, a recent study carried out a wide-ranging survey of telecommuting practices around the world. With some surprising results!
The study, published last July, was conducted by the Ifo Institute and Econpol Europe. It is based on a sample of over 42,400 higher education graduates in 34 countries.
First finding: there is a notable difference between Anglo-Saxon countries and the rest of the world. While the average number of days declared as teleworking per week was 0.9 for the panel as a whole, Australia emerged at 1.3, the United States at 1.4, the United Kingdom at 1.5 and… Canada topped the world rankings at 1.7 days per week!
In Europe, the figures do not exceed one day (Finland, Germany and the Netherlands). France stands at 0.6, Italy at 0.7 and Greece at 0.5. These levels are comparable to those in Latin America (between 0.9 and 1), while Asia is characterized by a lower use of telecommuting (0.8 in China, 0.5 in Japan and 0.4 in South Korea).
Overall, 67% of employees surveyed work entirely from their company office, 26% benefit from hybrid arrangements and 8% are constantly at home.
Employees more interested in teleworking… than employers
When segmenting respondents, the study notes that employees would like to have an average of 2 days a week of telecommuting, with more pronounced interest in North and Latin America, although differences are less clear-cut between countries on this question. Conversely, employers envisage an average of only 1.1 days of telecommuting per week in a post-pandemic world.
Like Elon Musk (Tesla and Twitter turned X), Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan) or Sundar Pichai (Alphabet), many employers are proclaiming that it’s time to come back to the office. However, behind these striking examples, American researchers indicate that in ten to twenty years’ time, there could be 30% to 40% of days worked from home. This raises the question of the future of the office.
What are the advantages of working from the office or from home?
Beyond these statistics, one of the major findings of the study concerns the benefits of different workplaces.
Unsurprisingly, working from the office enables you to socialize more with colleagues (62%), collaborate more physically (54%), or draw a clearer line between work and your personal life (43%).
On the other hand, the main advantages of telecommuting are the absence of travel (60%), the savings on gas and meal costs (44%) and the flexibility of working hours (42%).
Respondents also mention the possibility of having quiet time (30%, compared with only 10% in the office) and… having more time to see family and friends!
Our results show that, even after the pandemic, the majority of workers greatly appreciate the possibility of working from home for part of their working week, with some even attaching great importance to it. Regulations that increase the costs of working from home or restrict the range of teleworking options limit the ability of markets to satisfy these preferences,” concludes the study.
