Press Statement

Preasráiteas

26 April 2022

Go to release: Personal and Work-Life Balance 2021 - Remote Working

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 April 2022) published the third and final publication on the results of the Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey which was carried out in Quarter 3, 2021. The detail in this publication is a subset of the broader data collected. The first publication “Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey 2021 – Main Results” was published on 05 April 2022 and the second publication “Personal and Work-life Balance Survey 2021 – Job and Life Satisfaction and Barriers to Work” was published on 19 April 2022. This publication today on “Remote Working” covers employees’ availing of remote working, the availability of remote working pre COVID-19 and the factors influencing the availability of remote working.

Commenting on the report, Maureen Delamere, Statistician, said: "The Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey was carried out in Quarter 3 2021, when varying levels of COVID-19 related restrictions would have been in place. An increase in remote working was one of the responses to the pandemic.

Four in ten (39%) employees had been remote working at some stage during the pandemic, while one in twelve (8%) had availed of some form of remote working pre COVID-19. Professionals had the highest level of uptake of remote working (63%), followed by Managers, directors & senior officials and Associate professional & technical in joint second place (51%). These occupations also had the highest levels of remote working pre COVID-19. One in seven Managers, directors & senior officials and Professionals, and one in eight (12%) of Associate professional & technical workers worked remotely to some degree pre pandemic compared with only 1% of Skilled trade workers.

Analysis of the survey data shows that the size of the organisation where the employee works and whether the employee is working full-time or part-time impacts on their availing of remote working. At an overall level, full-time workers are nearly twice as likely to work remotely – 43% compared with 22% of their part-time equivalent. As the size of the organisation increases, so too does the uptake of remote working amongst full-time workers. The overall figure of 43% of full-time workers remote working (across all organisations) increases to 47% for full-time workers in organisations of between 20 and 99 personnel and increases further again to nearly half (49%) of full-time workers working in organisations of 100 people or more.

Of those working remotely, more than four in ten (41%) had worked off-site most of the previous four weeks (17 days or more). Of these, nearly four in five (79%) worked completely from home, compared with just over 2% pre COVID-19. The most commonly used remote working space was the home. More than three quarters (76%) of those remote working in the four weeks prior to interview were home working either completely or as a blend of remote working spaces.

Most workers in large organisations were still largely remote working – just one in eleven (9%) were not remote working in the 4 weeks prior to interview, compared with more than four in ten (43%) of workers in organisations of between 20 and 99 personnel.

In Quarter 3 2021, nearly one quarter (23%) of workers were back in the workplace fully and did not avail of remote working in the previous 4 weeks, while more than one quarter (26%) of workers were back in the workplace for a number of days per week.”

Looking at the impact of remote working on job and life satisfaction, Maureen Delamere, further commented: “Very high job and life satisfaction levels were reported by workers irrespective of working arrangements (92% overall satisfaction with life and 89% job satisfaction), with very little difference in satisfaction levels based on what type of hybrid working was availed of. Workers who were working mostly from home with a mix of office, hub or travel or remote working completely at home were most satisfied with both their job and life as a whole. The majority (94%) of these employees were satisfied or very satisfied with their life, compared with 92% of those working mainly in the office with a mix of some office, hub or travel. Job satisfaction was highest for those with a blended working pattern of mostly home, with mix of office, hub or travel (92%), just one percentage point higher than for those working completely at home, or at the office with a mix of home, hub or travel”

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