WFH Ireland Podcast Transcript — Pulse Survey Results and Findings

Welcome to the 21st episode of the “Working From Home Ireland” podcast. I am Morgan Bardon and for the past 13 years I have been working from home fulltime. In this series I want to share with you the experiences and learnings I have gained during my time working remotely.

In November 2021, the CSO surveyed people in Ireland around their online activities including remote working during the pandemic. The results of that survey was shared in January and I wanted to go though some of those main points with you all. This report includes insights into how much of our work has moved away from regular workplaces to home and other settings since the pandemic and examines some aspects of work-life balance.

Commenting on the results, Statistician, Dermot Kinane, said: “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020) the work conditions of those in employment in Ireland has changed dramatically with access to workplaces restricted as part of public health measures. This is why the CSO has produced ‘Our Lives Online: Remote Work’, which is the second publication to be produced from this Pulse survey as part of the CSO ‘Take Part’ campaign.”

He went on to say “Respondents were asked a series of questions about their current and future working arrangements and the impact remote work has had on their work-life balance. The results show how conditions have changed with eight in 10 (80%) of those in employment having worked remotely at some point since the start of the pandemic from just under one in four (23%) having worked remotely at some point before then. “

Finally he said that “This report shows that respondents in employment who could work remotely and living in the Mid-East Region (Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow) as well as those who used public transport and those whose travel time to work before the pandemic more than one hour were more likely to say they would like to work remotely after all pandemic restrictions are removed.”

So looking more into the results the ones that stood out to me were the following

Nine in 10 (90%) of those aged 35–44 years who could work remotely would like to do so when pandemic restrictions end

• Eight in 10 (80%) of those in employment have worked remotely at some point since the start of the pandemic — this compares to just 23% who worked remotely as some point proir to the pandemic
• Of those in employment in the Mid-East Region (Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow) who could work remotely, 93% said they would like to do so after all pandemic restrictions are removed
• Three in four (75%) respondents who were engaged on home duties and almost seven in 10 (69%) of those unable to work due to longstanding health problems would consider employment if it could be done remotely
• In the Mid-East Region (Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow) 59% of all those who would consider moving house if they could work remotely would move to a different county unlike those living in the South-West Region (Cork and Kerry) who were most likely to remain in their own county
• Just 3% of remote workers whose main mode of transport to work prior to the pandemic was a car are making more trips by car on days they remote work
• Almost two in 10 workers (18%) would like to work from a remote work hub or a combination of home and a remote work hub when pandemic restrictions end

From a remote perspective, what was interesting was the amount of people interested in remote working

• Of those in employment who can remote work, 88% would like to do so when all pandemic restrictions are removed. Of these, nearly three in 10 (28%) said they would like to do so all the time. Six in 10 (60%) said they would like to work remotely some of the time. The remainder (12%) said they would not like to work remotely in the future
• Those aged 35–44 years were the age group most likely to want to work remotely all the time (32%)
• Just under one in 10 (9%) who rated their home broadband as excellent would not like to work remotely in the future. This figure rose to 15% for those who rated their home broadband as poor
• Almost two-thirds (65%) of those in employment whose job could be done remotely but who have not worked remotely at any point since the pandemic began said they would definitely (49%) or probably (16%) work remotely if the opportunity to do so was available
• Three in 10 (30%) of those in employment whose job could not be done remotely with their current employer would be definitely (18%) or probably (12%) attracted to a new job that could
• Almost six in 10 (58%) of those not in employment would consider taking a job if it could be done remotely
• Gardening, the choice of just under three in 10 (27%) of those who felt they had more time available to them because of working remotely, grew more popular as age increased for both sexes with 56% of males and 38% of females aged 55 years and over choosing this activity.
• Nearly four in 10 (38%) of those in employment would consider a house move if they could work remotely. A further 7% said they have already moved because they could work remotely
• Compared to days they are in their workplace, when those aged 45–54 years’ work remotely 73% of the time and take less car trips, 34% take more trips on a bicycle and 50% taking more trips on foot

In relation to remote hubs and the use of remote offices

• Almost one-quarter (24%) of those who can work remotely and who would like to do so from a remote work hub, or a combination of home and a remote work hub live in rented accommodation. This figure falls to 16% for those whose tenure is owner-occupied
• Of those who said they would consider using a remote-work hub, 44% said they would travel up to 15 minutes to get to one, with an additional 45% saying they would travel up to double that time

What it did not show however was what age range those people were in. I know from our own findings that a lot of the people returning to the office are younger people or those that have joined the company within the last 2 years curious to meet others within the organization and experience the culture within the office. Recent graduates starting off the marketplace are also very likely to return to the office to experience all that working in an office has to offer them. Teams with interns are also returning to allow the interns the chance to learn from 121 in person training and direct in house learning, while experiencing a normal style office culture they have missed out on during their internship.

In another survey of 1001 business professionals which was conducted by Censuswide late 2021, 63% would consider a change of jobs this year. However a CPL survey the previous year had that at 70%. With the average person changing roles every 3–5 years, this figure really should be taken with a grain of salt in my opinion. I have seen already (and only 1 month into the year) that a lot of people are posting on Linkedin that they have changed roles or are about to change. A lot of those are within the same company.

So where does all this leave us remote workers? As more and more companies are bringing in hybrid working the possibilities to be able to work remote outside of multi-national organisations are increasing and therefore the type and level of job is increasing. Smaller companies are adopting and embracing the remote culture allowing more workers to take advantage of the benefits of remote working. Transportation is also adapting, with Irish Rail and Dublin bus looking at offering 3 day passes rather than the 5 day passes that they had in the past, as well as a debate starting to remove fares from public transport to get more people out of their cars.

New guidelines have been published by the government recently easing the requirement for working from home, but we are not seeing the numbers of people returning to the office that was expected. People and companies are still cautious around the return to the work place so it will take some time for levels to get back to where they were pre-pandemic. But even when we do return, there will be significant changes in the workplace that would suit remote workers better and capacities in the office might take years to recover back to where they were before.

While a lot of small firms have moved to remote working, the cost of doing so is quite high. Infrastructure for hosting email, secure document management, etc all add up and a lot of firms had to implement the level of remote working in a very small timeframe. For those firms that therefore want to continue to work remote they need to now consider closing their office space (maybe moving to a smaller site, or even a share office space) and considering changing over their business model to a more remote model. This would work where you are not having a need for customers to come on premises, but rather you go to them, or businesses that can work with customers remotely.

With restrictions easing even further on the 28th February, now is your time to work with your employer on your future needs and decisions around working from home or working back in the office. If you have not already started those conversations with your employer take the time so do so now. Remote working has proven to work and will be embraced more and more over the next few years so don’t feel like you cannot bring the subject up with your employer.