Status: 09/16/2022 12:35 p.m
The home office has established itself in many companies and not only. Employees would even be willing to give up more salary or resign if they had to return to work completely.
The ifo Institute today presented the results of a wide-ranging study on the subject of working from home among full-time employees. Employees in 27 selected countries were surveyed. The study showed that employees worked from home 1.5 days a week on average across the country. In Germany, the use of home work has leveled off at an average of 1.4 days per week after the pandemic.
South Korea, Egypt, Serbia and Taiwan are at the bottom end with less than one day per week. Singapore or India were at the top end with 2.4 and 2.6 days per week, respectively. In the US, an average of 1.6 days is spent working from home. In neighboring France it is 1.3 days and in Japan 1.1 days.
Skepticism about working from home has decreased
Corona has thus permanently changed working conditions. “Never before has any event changed working life so comprehensively in such a short time,” says Mathias Dolls, one of the authors of the study.
The traditional skepticism about working from home then decreased. More than half of the employees surveyed say they are more productive at home than they expected. The more positively employees assessed their productivity in relation to their previous expectations, the more home office days employers then offer. This connection applies in all 27 countries examined. More home office days have been offered in countries that have had stricter lockdown rules in place during the pandemic.
Job change or termination
Another number from the study shows how important it is for employees to work from home: 26 percent would be willing to give notice or look for a new job if their employer only offered face-to-face work. Studies in the US have even shown that more than 40 percent of current home workers there would look for a new job if their employer required a full return to the office.
In Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, more than a third were also very willing to take such a step. In the UK, 42 percent of employees would resign or look for a new job if they had to go back to the office five days a week.
Waiver of salary increase
However, employees would also forego a salary increase for the opportunity to work from home. On average, two to three days in the home office are worth almost five percent of their income. In Egypt, Ukraine, Brazil and Serbia, respondents were willing to forego a salary increase of more than seven percent. In Germany, the figure was 3.7 percent below the national average.
The reason for this is the sometimes long commute to work and the resulting costs. On average, it takes workers more than an hour a day to get to and from work. In China and India it was more than an hour and a half a day.
This trend could have far-reaching consequences, says Dolls – for example for work organization in companies and their ability to innovate or for cities. “If older and more affluent workers migrate to the suburbs, rents could fall in some cities,” said the expert. This in turn makes it easier for young workers to live there and benefit from the networking opportunities.