Remote working can lead to higher productivity and motivation

Remote working doesn´t lead to less productivity or motivation. According to a recent study by Page Personnel it has the opposite effect, as many employees who work from home report that they are more motivated, productive and satisfied than before.

Around 50% of the employees in the Netherlands say their productivity stayed the same while working remotely, and more than 44% of employees even think their productivity increased. 

Remote working also didn´t lead to less motivation, on the contrary, more than 21% of the employees even felt more motivated. Almost 60% of employees felt just as motivated as they felt working from the office.

Employees are equally positive about their job satisfaction: more than 56% all employees were just as satisfied with their work as they were before the lockdown, and 25% were even more satisfied. 

Employees want the possibility to work remote

If it´s up to the employees and job seekers remote working will become the new normal. More than 60% of the workforce would like to have the possibility to work remotely full time

That being said, even if they had the choice, many employees would still come to the office for the most part of the working week. Only 5% would choose to work remotely for 4 days or more.  Given the choice, the majority (73%) would choose to work from home 1 or 2 days per week.

Almost 69% of all employees and job seekers expect that companies will be more open to remote working policies than they were before the COVID crisis.  

Remote working increased dramatically 

The question is if the companies will listen to their employees and grand their wish to work more from home then they used to do before the crisis.  Although most companies also had flexible working policies in place before COVID, in general the rule was to work from the office. 

Before the crisis 57% of all employees could only work from home occasionally or not at all.  The minority (43%) of employees had the freedom of choice to work remotely.

Due to the lockdown the number of employees working remotely increased dramatically. Of all the respondent to the survey 55% worked remotely. The only people not working from home were those without a job, or with the sort of job that didn´t allow working remotely, for example in a storehouse or a shop.

About the survey

PageGroup surveyed all job applicants through our website over a little bit more than a month, to try and understand the affect the recent crisis had on their personal and professional lives, the support they got from their company, what they did to make the best of the situation. The survey was filled out by more than 350 job seekers in the Netherlands.

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