Many companies want to see their employees increasingly in the office again instead of working from home. But a global survey shows that they are alienating their employees by requiring them to be present. Germans in particular value a work-life balance.
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Many people no longer want to do without the privileges of working from home. In Germany, most employees would rather quit their job than go to the office more often. 53 percent of those who are required by their employers to be more present in the office than twelve months ago are looking for a new job.
This is shown by a survey commissioned by the personnel consultancy Page Group among around 50,000 people with office jobs worldwide, 2,140 of them in Germany. The results are available exclusively to Capital.
More and more companies that have mandated work from home since the coronavirus pandemic and continued to do so for a long time are now ordering their employees back to the office. Deutsche Bank, Microsoft and SAP have announced strict attendance rules. Some want to regain control and get more productivity out of their team, others argue that empty office space should be used more efficiently. Currently, 35 percent more employees are working in person again than a year ago. However, almost half of them apparently do this only reluctantly.
Germany with top values for work-life balance
This may have consequences. “I assume that sooner or later the pressure on employers will be so immense that they will have to relax their guidelines again,” says Goran Barić, Germany Managing Director of the Page Group. “Companies that can’t afford this will probably have to pay the price of having employees leave.” For many people, flexible working hours are almost as important as salary when choosing a job.
This trend towards more flexibility can be observed globally, but nowhere is the work-life balance as important as in Germany. 64 percent of those surveyed in this country said that they would prefer personal well-being to a promotion with a salary increase – a top international figure. On average, only 48 percent say this worldwide, and 57 percent in Europe.
Barić believes that “the pressure and power of the employee will remain for the next few years” as the shortage of skilled workers and managers is enormous. In his view, the only thing left for companies to do is to communicate openly and tell employees where they stand. “It’s no use giving everyone more comfort, flexibility and freedom if it means productivity suffers and the company gets into trouble,” says Barić.
Only one group can benefit more from the office: young people between the ages of 20 and 30. Around 21 percent of 20-year-olds say that they want to promote their career through face-to-face work, but only twelve percent of 50-year-olds say.
Source: Stern
