Six out of 10 workers want to combine remote employment with face-to-face employment after the pandemic

An employee carries out her work from an office on Aug. 26.Jason Alden / Bloomberg

The arrival of the coronavirus and the confinement caused a change in the mentality of many workers.

Remote employment became an escape route through which some companies were able to continue operating, and although employees were suddenly faced with an initially unknown scenario, a year and a half later most of them are not willing to resign. to the.

Not even when the doors of some centers have reopened: 6 out of 10 Spanish employees want to fulfill their task in a hybrid way - mixing face-to-face work with remote work - after the pandemic, according to the

study

published this Thursday by Adecco.

More information

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In this report, prepared from a survey of 14,800 employees spread over 25 countries, aged between 18 to 60 years, with contracts of at least 20 hours a week and who were consulted during the months of May and June From 2021, a favorable feeling for the maintenance of telework is gathered.

On the one hand, seven out of ten Spanish employees (71%) claim to already have an optimal space in which to perform outside of their work environment;

and on the other, within this long-awaited hybrid model, they would consider it optimal to complete 40% of their workday remotely.

However, less than half (48%) are optimistic and believe that their company will finally implement this system.

"It is becoming more and more evident that we will not return to the office in the same way we knew and that the future of work is flexible," says Íker Barricat, CEO of Adecco Spain. "The pandemic has accelerated existing trends to the point that they cannot be ignored, and future success depends on people adapting to them," he completes.

These new work dynamics aim to alter the paradigm of face-to-faceism that has existed for years in many companies.

According to the report by the human resources company, 74% of workers in Spain dedicate more than 40 hours a week to their working hours, and more than half of them (58%) affirm that they could do the same job in less time.

In addition, 76% believe that companies should review the length of the work week and the hours that professionals are expected to work.

More importance to results

Once the course towards prolonged teleworking has been established, the respondents consider it necessary to break away from the establishment of shift-determined working hours - the most widespread is from 9 to 18 -, and shift the responsibility of employees to obtaining results, above of the hours invested to reach them. This is the line of 77% of respondents, who affirm that contracts should focus more on meeting the needs of the position.

In addition, contrary to the conclusions drawn in other studies about the decrease in productivity caused by teleworking - the

published one of the most forceful - the perception of those who carry it out is directly contrary. Among those Spanish workers who have already been able to join this hybrid model, 85% say that their productivity remained the same or even improved in the last 12 months.

Despite the fact that teleworking led to the implementation of new technological tools that, in many cases, forced employees to improve their digital skills, this challenge was overcome by two-thirds of those surveyed (66%). A result that places Spain above the world average (63%). "Now is the time to equip leaders and workers alike with the skills and capabilities they need to rekindle motivation and build a cohesive company culture," details the director of Adecco.