Only 40% of employees still go to the office every day, study says

The office market has suffered a lot in recent years, as more and more employees have preferred the home office instead of the company headquarters. As a result, some of the owners of office buildings in Romania are already turning to alternative solutions for the use of empty spaces, while companies redistribute the budgets they would have allocated to rent and utilities. However, the hybrid way of working is one of the solutions that help to maintain the occupancy rate of office spaces, while responding to the need of employees to reduce the time dedicated to commuting, but also that of meeting with colleagues. Currently, among white-collar workers, 28% work in a hybrid system, while another 40% go to the office every day, according to the latest survey conducted by the online recruitment platform bestjobs. At the same time, about a third of the employees work exclusively remotely.

During the pandemic, 7 out of 10 respondents of the bestjobs survey worked from home or in a hybrid formula. Thus, the data indicate that very few employees have returned to the classic work style, which involves going to the office every day.Moreover, companies have had to adapt, introducing new amenities to lure people back to the office or flexible work options. In this sense, 14% of respondents say that their employer allows them to work from home for limited periods, 26% in a hybrid regime, and 21%, for an unlimited period. Working flexibility has become so important that 60% of respondents said that they themselves (27%) or their colleagues considered changing jobs for this reason, opting for one that would allow them to work as they wish.

“The balance of power between companies and employees has changed after the pandemic, and this can be seen in the power of employees to change a job that does not offer them the flexibility they need now. The remote working method has changed people’s approach, who have now come to appreciate as a standard advantage what was once perceived as an extra benefit“, says Ana Vișian, Marketing Manager of bestjobs.

A third of employees returned to the office without a clear justification from their employer

The return to the office, in the case of those who returned to the full or hybrid formula, happened gradually. Half of the employers decided during 2022 to bring their teams to the headquarters, 12% decided this year, and for another 4% to come. Among the reasons employers gave employees to justify the need to return to the office are the need to reconnect teams and socialize between colleagues and departments (36%), the fact that remote work was only necessary during restrictions (19% ), decreasing team performance (12%) and affecting organizational culture (5%). 28%, however, did not provide employees with any justification.

In the new working context, the meetings with the team have also moved predominantly online (70%), as it has become increasingly difficult to bring the teams together in the same physical place.

The survey was conducted in June, on a sample of 1,382 internet users from Romania.