Prevalence of Working from Home in the New Normal

Information economy: 80 per cent offer remote work options

A comparison of work-from-home prevalence in June 2023 with the situation before the pandemic clearly indicates that (partly) working from home has gained stronger footing within German firms. This trend is observed not only in firms within the manufacturing industry but also in the information economy, encompassing the ICT sector, media service providers as well as knowledge-intensive service providers. In the information economy, the proportion of firms offering work-from-home arrangements has surged from 48 to 80 per cent, while in manufacturing, this figure has nearly doubled from 24 to 45 per cent during the same period.

However, not only has the share of firms offering work-from-home arrangements grown significantly, but there has also been a notable uptick in the number of employees who are actively embracing these offers. Presently, in about every second firm within the information economy, over 20 per cent of employees work from home at least once a week. Only in June 2021 – shortly after the end of the second COVID-19 lockdown – did the share of firms exhibiting such intensive remote work usage slightly surpass this (63 per cent). By comparison, before the pandemic, this share was merely twelve per cent of firms.

In the manufacturing industry, working from home is less common due to the nature of tasks that often necessitate a physical presence at the production site. Before the pandemic, the percentage of firms where more than a fifth of employees worked from home was a mere two per cent. However, this percentage has since grown to 13 per cent.

No decline in work-from-home offers expected

“Looking ahead to the next two years, neither firms within the information economy nor those in manufacturing expect a decrease in work-from-home offers,” Erdsiek explains. “On the contrary, the prevailing sentiment suggests that both the percentage of firms providing work-from-home arrangements by 2025 and the share of employees working from home at least once a week will increase on average.” For instance, 58 per cent of firms within the information economy and 19 per cent of those in manufacturing are planning for more than 20 per cent of their employees to (partially) work from home in two years’ time.

These firms’ work-from-home strategies are significantly influenced by whether they presently allow employees to work from home or not. “Nearly 90 per cent of firms that have not yet adopted hybrid work have no plans to introduce work-from-home arrangements in the coming two years either. Therefore, if firms have not offered their employees the option to work from home so far, this is unlikely to change in the medium term. In contrast, firms that are currently offering remote work options are much more inclined to anticipate an expansion rather than a reduction in hybrid work models,” Erdsiek highlights.