Fewer and fewer home offices? Not at all, says a new study. The option has even become more important. But there are big differences between industries and companies of different sizes.
Employees in Germany spend an average of 17 percent of their working time at home. “The extent of home office work is unchanged compared to the previous year,” said Ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour on the published Company survey of his institute. “This may be surprising given the debate about returning to the office.” But the result is consistent with other data, according to which home offices are by no means on the decline.
However, the average figures hide very large differences in the individual sectors. Home work is particularly widespread in the IT sector (58 percent of working time) and in management consultancy (50 percent). In contrast, employees in construction and the catering industry spend only two percent of their working time working from home. In industry, the figure is ten percent.
Almost one in four also works from home
Currently, the proportion of employees working from home is 23.4 percent, just below the last measured value in February (24.1 percent). “Stricter rules do not necessarily mean less home office,” said Alipour. “Because the employers’ offers are primarily about coordinating attendance times in order to strengthen personal contact.”
Home office is particularly common in large companies: there, employees spend 20 percent of their working time in their own four walls. In contrast, the proportion in small and medium-sized companies is only 15 percent, as the Ifo Institute found.
Home office offers are becoming increasingly important
In times of a shortage of skilled workers, home office offers are becoming increasingly important in the battle for the best talent. The proportion of job advertisements with the option of “remote working” has increased fivefold to almost 18 percent in the past five years, according to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation.