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It will not have escaped anyone’s attention: companies really want to bring employees back to their premises. They often rely on local managers to convince their teams to favor face-to-face work. But the latter are much more favorable to teleworking than we imagine.
Some 68% of managers interviewed as part of Checkr’s latest survey would like the practice of teleworking to continue in 2024. They believe that this mode of organization promotes productivity and employee engagement, contrary to what studies on the subject say. It is interesting to note that managers seem more convinced of the benefits of remote working than the employees they supervise. In fact, only 48% of employees surveyed would like to be able to continue teleworking in the near future.
These figures demonstrate the ambiguous position in which many local executives find themselves with regard to teleworking. They favor this method of organization as an employee since it facilitates the distribution between professional and personal time, and protects them from the stress and fatigue linked to home-office travel. But they fear the complications inherent to teleworking (management of absent-present employees, performance monitoring, etc.).
Convince instead of imposing
Because the vast majority of managers agree on one point: it is more convenient to supervise employees when they are on site. Physical proximity greatly facilitates exchanges and the management of each person’s tasks. But executives are aware that going to the office does not necessarily make employees more productive. The open space is renowned for being the place of all decentralization and interruptions, which explains why some employees prefer to take refuge at home to progress on their missions. In addition, there are tricks to appear as if you are working face-to-face without doing too much, such as teleworking.
This is why managers are quite circumspect about the usefulness of return-to-office policies. Nearly 60% of those surveyed by Checkr fear that many of their employees would consider changing jobs if they were required to come to work on company premises every day. In comparison, only 47% of the main stakeholders think that such a measure would lead to the desertion of a large number of their colleagues.
Overall, the results of this survey show that managers and employees are much more aligned than we imagine when it comes to teleworking. Many people see this method of organization as an opportunity to respond to the challenges facing the world of work. However, executives seem more attached to the office than their colleagues who do not have a supervisory role. Thus, 56% of them take a dim view of the fact that some of their colleagues categorically refuse to come and work on their company’s premises, compared to 38% for employees.
*This Checkr survey was conducted online, via Pollfish, among 1,500 non-manager Americans and 1,500 Americans in managerial roles. Data was collected between November 15 and 18, 2023.