2023-08-23 14:48:55

More than half of Estonian employers plan to continue with remote working

01.09.2020

More than half of Estonian employers plan to continue with remote working

During the health crisis, 76% of Estonian employers offered remote working and for over half of them, working from home continues. A recent study by Estonian leading job site CVKeskus.ee and Salary Information Agency revealed that 56% of employers will continue to offer remote working possibilities within the following months.
23% of organizations provided some opportunities to work remotely already before the health crisis, but within recent months, most of the Estonian employers (76%) offered a possibility to work from home to their employees. In total, 29% of companies moved all of their employees to telework to combat the health crisis.

The research indicates that more than half (56%) of employers plan to continue with more flexible working arrangements during the following months. Remote working will mostly continue in organizations where teleworking was common already before the health crisis. However, the emergency situation has brought along more opportunities to work outside of the workplace, even in organizations where previously remote working was rare. Nearly every fourth (23%) employer without previous teleworking habit, plan to continue with remote working.

“The health of the employees is employers first priority and surely it was the main reason that boosted the number of people working remotely,” says Henry Auväärt, Marketing Manager of CVKeskus.ee. “From the study, we see that employers also discovered that more flexibility helps to develop a better employer brand and recruit talented people. Furthermore, employers found that remote working improved the motivation and performance of their employees.”

“When employers see such benefits, we have to wonder why remote working is common only among 23% of companies. According to the employers, it’s due to the habits – just the fact that the company is not used to work in such a way is also the main reason why remote working seems risky to the managers, which is kind of unfortunate,” said Henry Auväärt.

Kadri Seeder, the Head of the Salary Information Agency, adds that such organizations where teleworking is not common see more risks than opportunities in remote working. “For example, the common fear is that allowing people to work outside the workplace will create tension for some team members due to feelings of injustice, and therefore it will be more difficult to manage people.”

The Estonian employers research was held in April and repeated again in June by The Salary Information Agency with cooperation of Estonian leading job site CVKeskus.ee. Representatives of 698 organizations participated in the spring survey and 589 in the follow-up survey. The research followed changes in basic salaries, the employers' recruitment and redundancy plans, changes in turnover and profit, recovery forecasts, managers' values in decision-making, and the effects of teleworking.

Read more: CV Keskus belongs among 1% of the fastest growing & innovative companies in Estonia