Mobile forms of work from the perspective of establishments and employees : Home office offers advantages, but also has pitfalls

Abstract

"Mobile work is increasingly becoming the focus of public attention. At present, about one in four establishments in Germany offers the possibility of mobile working, mostly both from home and on the way. The use of home office is slowly increasing: among employees in private establishments with at least 50 employees, 19 percent worked from home in 2013 and 22 percent in 2017. Spending complete days in home office is comparatively rare; 63 percent of those who use home office work on hourly base from home. The increased flexibility is a double-edged sword: while half of the employees who use home office see the advantage of balancing work and private life better, almost as many report problems with the separation between the two. About two-thirds of employees who do not currently work from home generally reject this option. However, every ninth employee reports to have tasks suitable for home office and moreover wants to work from home but is currently not enabled to do so. Employees who want but cannot work from home are more dissatisfied than those who work from home at least occasionally during their working hours." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Grunau, P., Ruf, K., Steffes, S. & Wolter, S. (2019): Mobile Arbeitsformen aus Sicht von Betrieben und Beschäftigten: Homeoffice bietet Vorteile, hat aber auch Tücken. (IAB-Kurzbericht 11/2019), Nürnberg, 12 p.