Xing survey: This is how important working from home is to the Swiss
Four years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic helped the work-from-home trend take off. Four years later, Xing wants to know: How sustainable is this shift toward working from home?
Working from home is currently possible for less than half of those surveyed, and for a quarter of those with the option to work from home, the employer has limited this again. Working from home is important to many professionals, but it is only a killer criterion for a few when choosing an employer. These are the results of a survey conducted by the jobs network Xing, for which the market and opinion research institute Forsa interviewed five hundred employees in German-speaking Switzerland at the beginning of the year on the subject of working from home and remote working.
Other results:
- Four out of ten respondents state that they have the opportunity to work from home at least part of the time. Twenty percent have a general obligation to be present and 35 percent have a job that can only be carried out on site. At 50 percent, men are more likely to work from home than women at 29 percent.
- Of the respondents who are able to work from home at least part of the time, 26% say that their employer has already limited their ability to work from home. A further 19 percent fear that a reduction is imminent. Around half (52%) believe that their company will maintain the current options for working from home.
- 41% of respondents stated that the option to work from home makes an employer more attractive. For around a fifth (21 percent) of respondents who are currently unable to work from home, this would be a reason to change employer. However, the lack of home office options is a killer criterion when looking for a job for only a few. While 45 percent refrain from applying if a company's location is not suitable despite the prospect of higher pay, only 21 percent are put off by a lack of home office or remote working opportunities. A poor management culture, bad experiences with the employer among acquaintances, financial difficulties at the company or a poor corporate image are all more important exclusion criteria than the lack of home office options.
- The effect of working from home on productivity is rated positively by respondents who are able to work from home at least some of the time. 21% rate their own work performance as much higher when working from home, 27% as slightly higher. 9 percent think that they achieve slightly less when working from home and 4 percent state that their work performance is much lower at home.
