Despite the fact that the situation is far from being the same as in the pandemic, teleworking it is more alive than ever, and many professionals have begun to consider this modality 100%.
Teleworking is not something new: this modality was regulated for the first time in Spain in 2012. However, it is now when employees see it as one of the best ways to work, to the point that the 81% of professionals in the digital sector would consider leaving their company if they had to return to the office full time, according to a new survey carried out by Prosperity Digital, the specialist recruitment agency in the digital sector. This is a survey on remote work in which more than 900 workers and managers in the digital sector have participated.
Starting a path of no return towards working online is a reinforced decision for reasons such as, for example, the opportunity to reconcile work life with family life or increased productivity. In fact, according to the results obtained in the survey carried out by Prosperity Digital, 58% of the employees surveyed consider that they are more productive when working remotely, while only 7% claim to be more productive in the office.
According to Gary Mullan, CEO of Prosperity Digital, “Although it may seem to many managers that teleworking lowers the productivity of their workers, the reality is that employees perceive the opposite, that they are more productive away from the office. Especially if we are talking about workers who have already gotten used to working like this and organizing like this”.
Digital talent retention
But the word of the employees is not enough for many bosses. In fact, although 70% of managers of digital professionals believe that teleworking is the future, only 25% trust the supposed productivity that employees say they have when working from home.
However, despite this distrust, the leaders of companies in the digital sector conceive of teleworking as a key tool to attract and retain talent. As Gary Mullan states, “The lack of flexibility and the demands of face-to-face together with a low salary or a lack of an employee career progression plan are the 3 main reasons why employees would leave their company to look for a better place”.
Retaining digital talent has motivated many managers to offer hybrid work plans and even completely remote. However, teleworking can have its downside and both workers and bosses agree on this: 66% of employees believe that the biggest disadvantage of working remotely is the loss of face-to-face interaction with colleagues, while 63 % of managers surveyed talk about the “feeling of isolation” as the main disadvantage.
Something similar occurs with communication, which can be hampered as a result of distance: 30% of employees cite the difficulty collaborating as one of the reasons why teleworking has not been fully implemented, a figure that rises to 44% when it comes to the opinion of managers.
“Predicting the future on this issue is complicated: the total application or not of remote work will depend on the type of profession, the social context and the characteristics of each company”, Mullan states. Nevertheless, “Starting to be more flexible with workers and offering them opportunities to combine their work life with their family life should be on the agenda of all senior managers”adds Mullan. This would make it possible not only to make workers feel comfortable in the companies, but also to ensure their well-being outside of them.
