All countries show disconnect between employee-employer preferences: report
Worldwide, Canadians have the greatest freedom to work from home, according to a recent report.
In Canada, WFH averages 1.7 days per week, reports German think tank ifo Institute.
Trailing Canada on the list are workers in the U.K. (1.5 days), the U.S. (1.4 days) and Australia (1.3 days). Meanwhile, workers in Chile, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand work from home once a week on average.
Workers in all the other countries included in the study work from home less than once a week on average.
“Even in the aftermath of the pandemic, the majority of workers highly value the opportunity to work from home for a portion of their workweek,” says the ifo, according to a Financial Post report.
Previously, four Canadian cities landed on a list ranking the best places for "workation," where remote employees can work while enjoying a vacation.
Mind the gap: employee expectations
Despite workers’ current state of freedom to work from home, employers still fall short when it comes to meeting employees’ demand in this regard, finds ifo’s survey of 42,400 full-time employees in 34 countries conducted between April and May.
“What we’re seeing is that employees really value the option to work from home. However, there’s a gap between the number of days that employees would like to work from home and the number that their employers are planning for them,” says Mathias Dolls, deputy director of the ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys.
The table below shows the disparity:
|
Countries |
Number of days workers want to work from home |
Number of days employers plan to let workers work from home |
|---|---|---|
|
Australia |
2.2 |
1.1 |
|
Canada |
2.5 |
1.8 |
|
Finland |
1.7 |
1.0 |
|
Germany |
1.8 |
1.2 |
|
New Zealand |
2.3 |
1.4 |
|
UK |
2.3 |
1.7 |
|
US |
2.6 |
1.9 |
With the federal government’s return to workplace policy, 30 per cent of Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) members say they are actively looking for another job that will provide them with “the flexibility that they need and want,” said Jennifer Carr, PIPSC president, in talking with Canadian HR Reporter.
Work-from-home policy
Here’s how to create the perfect work from policy for your company, according to Jeff Murphy of Snack Nation, a healthy office snack delivery service:
- Define who is eligible to work from home.
- Establish an approval process.
- Set regular working hours.
- Provide guidance on timekeeping for hourly employees.
- Create attendance and availability standards.
- Streamline communications channels.
- Provide IT support.