Employers willing to offer staff option of working from home
AUCKLAND: Most employers are offering staff some flexibility in choosing to work at the office or at home, not just in response to the pandemic but because employees are demanding it, a survey has found.
Frog Recruitment’s annual world of work survey of 600 Australasian employers, across a broad crosssection of industry sectors, has found nearly twothirds (61%) of employees want flexible work options.
‘‘Notably, 85% say they are now open to working fully remotely for a company located in another city, highlighting our workforce’s willingness to be nimble and flexible with work arrangements,’’ Frog Recruitment managing director Shannon Barlow said.
Most employers were willing to allow more flexibility, onefifth having formalised such arrangements, she said.
Employers without flexible working conditions were typically in industries such as manufacturing and other types of work requiring handson involvement, such as services and construction.
Those types of industries could overcome that disadvantage with strong leadership, which was also highly rated by jobseekers.
‘‘Now, in this situation the things that we’re finding are more important are around that culture and that trust, particularly with the senior leadership, and the way that they’ve been able to bring the team together and to really work as a team through these times and to overcome the challenges.’’
Leadership was key to tackling chronic workplace stress.
‘‘The use of technology has played a big part in that, so that while it has been a huge benefit . . . you suddenly become available 247, so we did find that burnouts was more of a problem because we could easily continue working from home for that extra hour or log on over the weekend.’’
Leadership was required to ensure staff did not exceed healthy work levels, primarily by setting a healthy example.
‘‘Employers and managers feel a pressure to overperform, and many have developed work and lifestyle habits that have blurred work and home life so much that they struggle to separate the two.’’ — RNZ