Finland: Employer’s perception of remote work effects on mental health and stress
Perception of remote work effect on employees' mental health and well-being
Remote working is mostly perceived as beneficial for employees’ mental health and well-being: 53% of companies report positive effects, while at the same time 18% of companies report adverse effects. Rest of companies either do not perceive any impact (21%) or provide no response (8%).
The variation in perceptions on remote working by industry sector is low. The highest share of companies that perceive remote work has an advantage for employees’ mental health and well-being is observed in the professional, scientific & technical activities industry (59%). Interestingly, companies in the information and communication industry are least likely to expect benefits for employees’ mental health or well-being due to remote work (44%) as well as these companies have also the highest share of expecting adverse effects (42%). This is contrasting findings from the Luxembourg and Portugal surveys.
Note: Statistics for financial & insurance activities sector (NACE code: K) are not published because the sample size is too small to ensure data confidentiality.
Exsiting literature suggests that employers often believe that remote work is linked to employees’ lower levels of job related stress. While this holds among employers from Finland, in general, the proportion of companies perceiving remote work alleviating stress levels was the lowest among the five case study countires in this project.
Only 40% of companies in Finland believed work-related stress can be lowered when employees work remotely, whereas 11% of organizations expect that remote work induces higher levels of job related stress. At the same time, over 40% of companies perceived no effects from remote work work-related stress.
The highest share of organisations reporting lower work-related stress due to emplyees’ remote working is found in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities sector (47%) and manufacturing industry (46%). Interestingly, organizations in information and communication industry perceived remote work to alleviate stress levels the least (38%) and up to 21% of organizations believed it induces higher levels of job related stress.