Home office & Co. goes from exception to rule

A representative study has examined the state of mobile, flexible working. For this purpose, 2000 people in German- and French-speaking Switzerland were surveyed in mid-August. At a time, therefore, when the daily infection figures were low and there was no longer any advice against returning to the office. "The survey was therefore conducted under the impression of the pandemic, and yet the timing allows certain conclusions to be drawn about how the situation might develop after this situation," explains study leader Dr. Johann Weichbrodt, a research associate at the School of Applied Psychology at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland.

A small proportion of companies refuse to accept home office & co.

As recently as 2016, 38 percent said they used mobile-flexible working at least occasionally. In February 2020, 41 percent of the study participants said they had regularly used mobile-flexible working - i.e., they had worked part of the time in their home office or at another location outside the company premises. During the lockdown from the end of March, this proportion rose to 58 percent and then fell again - but only to 48 percent. Johann Weichbrodt considers these to be high figures, which can be explained to a large extent by greater potential. For example, the proportion of employed persons who state that they cannot work in a mobile-flexible manner due to their job has dropped significantly: from 45 to 37 percent. "On the one hand, this has to do with economic structural change, but it probably also reflects a change in perception."

What has not changed, however, is the value of those who could use it because of their job description - but are not allowed to: As before, 7 percent of employees are denied mobile-flexible working. Surprisingly, this figure did not fall below 3 percent even during the lockdown in March/April.

SMEs catching up with flexible forms of work

The study also sheds light on the differences between employer structures. The study looked at those that could enable flexible working on the basis of job descriptions. And here, striking differences emerge, especially between employers from the public and private sectors, respectively depending on the size of the organization. To illustrate this, the study works with a phase model that shows the development from completely location-bound working (phase 1) to completely flexible working in terms of time and location (phase 5). In phase 2, for example, flexible working is only the exception, but in phase 4 it is almost the rule.

In 2020, the 100 largest companies are on average consistently in phase 3 in many areas - work model, office architecture, organizational structure - and even in phase 4 for technology. Significant changes are visible in all areas compared with 2016. The difference between larger companies and SMEs has also narrowed: The latter have caught up considerably and have significantly reduced their gap to the large companies compared to 2016.

Public administration is struggling

Public administration, on the other hand, is consistently in phase 2 on average, which also represents a significant development compared with 2016. However, the differences between the individual administrations are still large: A certain proportion of administrations are still in phase 1 - i.e. working completely from a fixed location without exception. "This is where the pandemic is likely to trigger discussions," explains Johann Weichbrodt. "During the spring lockdown, these administrative units also had to comply and often had positive experiences. Overnight, the proof of the pudding was that it just does work - especially technologically."

Home office monitoring: no systematic approach

For the first time, the study also looked at the question of monitoring in the home office. Here, 13 percent said they were monitored. In terms of the type of monitoring, 9 percent of those in gainful employment said they felt monitored via the status display in programs such as "Skype" or "Teams. "That's fewer than the public discussions would suggest," Weichbrodt said in assessing the numbers. "Surveillance of work in the home office does not seem to be the problem. The vast majority of employees can do their own work from home." Only 4 percent said that their employer uses special software for monitoring.

Massively more women work mobile-flexible

One of the most significant increases across the study is in gender differences: significantly more men (2014: 40 %, 2016: 47 %) than women (2014: 27 %, 2016: 28 %) worked mobile-flexibly in 2014 and 2016. In 2020, women caught up massively: The proportion rose to 43 percent for them and 52 percent for men.

The biggest obstacles and problems

Those who frequently work mobile-flexibly perceive a lack of identification with the team (60 %) and emotional isolation (53 %) as the biggest problem, followed by the feeling of working all the time (41 %) and work-life balance (36 %). Rather less problematic are rated health aspects or the potential for abusive use of the fewer opportunities for control by superiors. Among the obstacles, the argument that the job requires proximity to the team (44 %) is put forward by a wide margin, followed by the lack of support from the corporate culture (29 %) and the lack of opportunities to process sensitive data on the road or in the home office. The lack of technology was rated as the smallest obstacle (15 %).

Home office & Co. becomes the norm - pure presence the exception

The Work Smart Initiative has been monitoring the acceptance, introduction and establishment of mobile-flexible working for five years. This year's evaluation marks a turning point, as for the first time a large majority of those for whom the job description allows home office & co. can also use this. Nevertheless, Johann Weichbrodt still sees a lot of potential for development: "In the beginning, there was the commitment, sometimes also the symbolism, but now mobile-flexible working is becoming part of everyday life, the norm. This not only has consequences for those who continue to refuse it - it also challenges those who already apply it. That's because structures and management models need to be adapted to it, and aspects perceived as negative by users need to be addressed." The pandemic will accelerate both, it's clear: 49 percent of respondents said Corona has led to culture change at their employer. But 39 percent, on the other hand, said that skeptical attitudes remain in their company and that they want to go back to the old if possible. Johann Weichbrodt: "In the summer, it became apparent that a flattening of the infection figures already leads to an increased return to the office. But it will hardly be possible to turn back the clock to the level of February."

Source: work-smart-initiative.ch