Approximately 40% of employees would seek another job if their employer asked them to work mainly from the office, according to a survey carried out at the end of August by Undelucram.ro, the largest online community of employees in Romania.
According to the same study, around 33% of the HR professionals surveyed said that in the companies they represent, employees work from the office two days a week.
2,813 employees and 537 HR experts responded to this survey.
61% of employees currently work mainly from home (3-5 days a week), and the rest from the office. At the same time, 72% want to continue in this regime – to work from home, while only 28% would like to work mainly from the office (3-5 days a week).
Those who prefer to work from home chose this way of working because they find it more efficient (62% of employees) or because they can also take care of family & home during working hours (57%). Around 13% say they like working from home because it allows them to have another job.
65% of employees would only return to the office if they were asked to do so
Moreover, if they were to return to work from the office, around 65% of employees would only take this step if the company required it. Approximately 50% of employees would work from the office to socialize, and 27% for efficiency reasons.
If the company asked them to work 3-5 days a week from the office, 54% would not agree.
Furthmermore, if they were required to work from the office most of the time and they did not want to do so, about 40% of employees would look for another job. About 36% of employees would talk to other colleagues to convince management and the HR department to change this decision, and 25% would comply with the decision to go to the office due to a lack of alternatives.
More than half of employees (52%) say their employers did not ask for their opinion when deciding this way of working.
In contrast, 90% of the HR professionals surveyed say they have consulted with their employees about returning to office work. About 7% have not done so, and 3% say they will.
On the other hand, 83% of the HR experts say they have discussed this year within the department or with the company management the idea of recalling employees to work mainly from the office. Around 13% did not talk about this topic, and for 4%, the discussion was pointless because they worked only from home in the last two years.
Around 90% of HR professionals say that management supports a balance between work at the office and work at home. About 6% of the HR experts say that managers encourage working from home, and 4% would like to call employees to the office.
Human resources experts also say that following discussions with the company’s management, they have decided as follows: work should be carried out from the office two days a week (32% of HR specialists), work should be carried out from the office four days a week (19%), the decision should be up to the employees (12%), work should be carried out from the office three days a week (9%), employees should come to the office every day (7%), employees should work four days remotely and one day from the office (3.3%), exclusively remotely – with certain exceptions (3.1%) and employees to work three days remotely (2.9%).
Although many businesses have been working from home for over two and a half years, only 54% of HR specialists say that there are rules regarding telework in the companies they represent. At the same time, 44% of employers said they would establish such regulations.
The main concerns of HR specialists regarding remote work are: the fact that employees no longer communicate as well with each other – which can affect efficiency (33%), the tendency for employees to no longer want to work from the office (29% ), employee efficiency (24%),
maintaining employee motivation (24%), the fact that HR initiatives are no longer visible enough (10%) and the fact that there is an economic crisis and employees need to be more united and efficient, but they do not want to return to the office (8%).
Romania ranks third best country for a remote workaction, survey finds
