Working from home increases employee satisfaction

There is a clear correlation between the perception of flexibility in working life and the opportunity to work from home. These are the findings of a member survey of more than 17,000 IDA members employed in the private sector.

Almost 81% respond that they have ‘a high degree’ or ‘a very high degree’ of flexibility in their job when it comes to the opportunity to work from home and the timing of their working hours during the day.

Zooming in on the differences in respondents' employment conditions, it also appears that those who are ‘highly’ satisfied with the level of flexibility in their job also have the opportunity to work from home three times as often as those who are ‘not at all’ or ‘to a low degree’ satisfied with the flexibility in their workplace.

That is why Malene Matthison-Hansen, chair of the IDA Council of Employees, is puzzled by the ‘return-to-office’ wave that has swept across the Atlantic from the United States to the Danish shores. Recently, several Danish companies have announced that they will limit or completely eliminate their employees’ ability to work from home in the future.

‘The opportunity to work remotely from time to time is important to our members and the most significant factor when they are asked to identify what gives them flexibility in their job. It is a way to make a busy everyday life work when you are shown the trust that you will, of course, complete your tasks on time, but that you can also make family life work, ‘she says.

In contrast to the vast majority, almost 19% respond that they have either ‘not at all’, ‘to a low degree’ or ‘to some degree’ the desired flexibility in their working lives.

The survey also shows that the opportunity to work from home is at the top of the wish list among those who feel they do not have the desired flexibility. 61% respond that it is the lack of opportunity to work from home that is the source of their dissatisfaction with the flexibility in their working life.

‘In practical terms, you avoid commuting time when you have the opportunity to plan to work from home one or two days a week. Many people work in open-plan offices, and the contrast between the dynamic atmosphere this creates and the opportunity to immerse oneself at home is attractive to many of our members,’ says Malene Matthison-Hansen.

This shows that flexibility and the opportunity to work from home are inextricably linked and that it increases employee satisfaction, according to Malene Matthison-Hansen, chair of the IDA Council of Employees.

‘My appeal to employers is to take a pragmatic view of working from home. Obviously, it doesn’t work if everyone is away all the time. It can have a negative impact on relationships and on those important coffee machine chats that often give rise to new ideas and inspiration.

But a rigid regime that bans all opportunities for working from home will backfire and make it difficult to recruit specialists in STEM. That is the message from the members in this survey, ’ says Malene Matthison-Hansen.