Companies Sticking with Remote Work
Research
12.08.2024
Representative ZEW study on the current and planned utilisation of remote work
Recently, there have been repeated reports that well-known companies want to restrict their home office regulations. The announced “return-to-office” strategies range from new upper limits for the number of days allocated for remote work to reintroducing the requirement to work daily in-office. Despite the media attention for a possible move away from working from home, a ZEW survey shows that hybrid working models are still widespread in German companies. Furthermore, companies expect remote work to become even more prevalent over the next two years. These are the findings of a representative survey conducted by ZEW Mannheim with around 1,200 companies in June 2024.
“According to our survey, employees in 82 per cent of companies in the information economy work from home at least once a week. Even in the manufacturing industry, where on-site work is more necessary, that figure is at 48 per cent. The proportion of companies that allow their employees to work from home at least once a week has thus remained at a consistently high level since the coronavirus pandemic. This means that we currently see no signs of companies turning away from offering remote work at least one day per week,” commented Dr Daniel Erdsiek, director of the study and member of ZEW’s “Digital Economy” Research Unit.
No decline in remote work opportunities expected
A comparison of current home office rates with the situation before the pandemic clearly shows the extent to which mobile working has become established in German companies. In the manufacturing industry, the proportion of companies offering home office options has doubled from 24 per cent before the pandemic to 48 per cent now. In the information economy, the proportion has also risen sharply, jumping from 48 per cent to 82 per cent.
“Looking ahead to the next two years, companies do not expect to reduce offers of at least one home office day per week. On the contrary, the proportion of companies with home office opportunities is expected to rise again – to 88 per cent in the information economy and 57 per cent in manufacturing,” said Erdsiek.
In addition, the companies surveyed anticipate an increasing proportion of employees who will take advantage of such options in the future. For example, around two thirds of companies in the information industry expect more than 20 per cent of their employees to be working from home at least once a week by June 2026.
Prevalence of multi-day home office work doubles
Hybrid working models can be organised in a variety of ways and adapted to company requirements. However, a fundamental and universal component is agreeing how much remote work will be permitted. There are five main home office models, ranging from one to five days a week.
“Currently, 42 per cent of companies in the information economy allow some of their employees to work from home at least three days a week. Before the coronavirus pandemic, only 21 per cent of companies allowed employees to work from home for this amount of time,” said Erdsiek. “The current prevalence of the remaining home office models is also well above the pre-pandemic level – in most cases around twice as high. This applies to both the information economy and the manufacturing industry.”
Larger companies more likely to offer remote work for multiple days per week
However, the amount of time employees are allowed to work from home varies greatly depending on the size of the company. The larger the company, the more likely it is that some employees will be able to take advantage of offers with more work days at home. For example, models with at least three home office days are used in around three quarters of large companies in the information economy (at least 100 employees). This proportion falls to 61 per cent for medium-sized companies (20 to 99 employees) and is only 35 per cent for small companies (5 to 19 employees).
"Hybrid working models with at least two home office days per week are currently used by 91 per cent of large, 80 per cent of medium-sized and 55 per cent of small companies in the information economy. In the manufacturing sector, these company shares range from 76 per cent for large companies to 15 per cent for small companies."
Data basis
The results are part of the "ZEW Information Economy Sector Report" from Summer 2024. In June, around 1,200 German companies from the manufacturing and information economies, the latter of which is made up of the ICT sector, media service providers and knowledge-intensive service providers, took part in the quarterly business survey, which has been conducted quarterly since 2011. In each wave of the survey, data is also collected on current key topics in the research field of digital economics. These include current ICT trends, investments in ICT or the diffusion of new ICT applications. In the current edition, the main topic was remote work.
