Personal and Work-Life Balance 2021 - Remote Working

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become the norm for many employees across Ireland. The Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey was carried out in Quarter 3 2021, over a year into our country dealing with the pandemic, and varying levels of restrictions existed. Respondents were asked about their availing of remote working (at any stage) during the previous 12 months, as far back as Quarter 3 2020.

At an overall level, almost four in ten (39%) employees availed of remote working, at some stage during the twelve months prior to interview. By comparison, only one in twelve (8.2%) had worked remotely pre COVID-19. See Table 2.1 and Figures 2.1 and 2.2.

As part of the suite of Government measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, all schools, pre-schools and further and higher education settings were closed during periods of 2020 and 2021. This shows in analysis of the data by NACE economic sector where the Education sector had the highest (86.2%) uptake of remote working. However, only 2.8% of employees in the Education sector had availed of remote working pre COVID-19. See Table 2.1.

Over half (53.7%) of workers in the Public administration and defence sector availed of remote working in the twelve months previous to interview. Only one in twenty-five (3.9%) had availed of remote working pre COVID-19. See Table 2.1.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic reaching our shores, workers in the Information and communication sector were already availing of remote working, in some form, at a significant level. Just short of three in ten (29.9%) workers in this sector were remote working in some form pre COVID-19. This figure more than doubled (64.2%) during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed closely by the Financial, insurance and real estate activities sector (63.1%). This sector also had a high level of remote working pre COVID-19 (22.9%), as did the Professional, scientific, and technical activities sector, where one in five had availed of remote working prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Industry sector, one in seven (14.1%) had remote worked pre COVID-19, and this rose to over four in ten (42.6%) during the COVID-19 pandemic. See Table 2.1.

The sectors with the lowest level of uptake of remote working were the Construction (12.0%), Wholesale and retail trade (12.7%) and Human health and social work activities (14.1%) sectors. Many jobs in construction would not be suited to remote working. See Table 2.1.

Analysis of the data by broad occupational group shows that Professionals had the highest level of uptake of remote working (62.7%), followed by Managers, directors, and senior officials and Associate professional and technical in joint second place (50.7%). These occupations also had the highest levels of remote working pre COVID-19, one in seven Managers, directors and senior officials and Professionals, followed by one in eight (12%) Associate professional and technical workers, compared with Skilled trade workers who had the lowest level of uptake of remote working pre COVID-19 (1.2%) and during COVID-19 (2.8%). See Table 2.1 and Figure 2.3.

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, does impact on their availing of remote working. At an overall level, full-time workers are nearly twice as likely to work remotely – 43.4% compared with 22.4% of their part-time equivalents. As the size of the organisation increases, so too does the uptake of remote working amongst full-time workers. The uptake of remote working for full-time workers in organisations of between 20 and 99 personnel was 46.5% and increases to 48.9% for full-time workers working in organisations of 100 people or more. See Table 2.2 and Figure 2.4.

At an overall level, workers with dependent children were more likely to have availed of remote working – 41.2% compared with 37.1% of workers with no dependent children. However, persons living alone with no dependent children were most likely to have worked remotely in the twelve months previous to interview. Over half (50.4%) were remote working at some point during the previous 12 months. For workers with dependent children, those residing with one other adult, were most likely to have availed of remote working. Pre COVID-19, these workers were the most likely to have worked remotely – 12.1% compared with over one in nine (11.4%) of sole occupant households. See Table 2.3 and Figures 2.5 and 2.6.

Respondents were asked about how satisfied they were with their job and their life as a whole. At an overall level, employees who worked remotely, either during the COVID-19 pandemic, or pre COVID-19, had higher job and life satisfaction ratings, when compared with those who had not worked remotely. Over nine in ten (92.1%) workers who had worked remotely in the previous twelve months were satisfied/very satisfied with their job, compared with 86.9% of persons who had not worked remotely at all in the previous year. See Table 2.4.

Survey findings were similar for life satisfaction. The majority (94.1%) of those who had worked remotely in the previous twelve months were satisfied/very satisfied with their life as a whole, compared with just over nine in ten (90.8%) of those who had not availed of remote working. Of those who had worked remotely pre COVID-19, 95.5% of persons who had worked off-site were satisfied/very satisfied with their life as a whole, compared with over nine in ten (91.8%) of those who had not worked remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic. See Table 2.4.