Finland: Employers’ perceptions of remote working effects on productivity, creativity and satisfaction

To elicit employers’ perception of potential effects of remote work, they were asked whether they believe employees to be less or more productive, creative or satisfied when they work remotely roughly two days a week as compared to working on-site their entire working time.

29% of employers in the survey think that employees working remotely twice a week are more productive as compared to working on-site the entire working time. At the same time, 41% of employers did not expect positive nor negative effect on employees’ productivity, and 23% of organizations believed lower levels of productivity if employees work remotely. Overall, 8% of employers did not answer to this question.

Perceptions varied significantly between industry sectors. Organizations from professional, scientific and technical activities sector reported the highest proportion of employyes’ increased productivity when working remotely. In contrast, only 18% of organizations from manufacturing sector believed remote working increasing productivity, while 37% believed it to decrease productivity. At the same time, over 50% of organizations from information and communication sector believed remote working having no effect on productivity of employees.

Note: Statistics for financial & insurance activities sector (NACE code: K) are not published because the sample size is too small to ensure data confidentiality.

In contrast to positive effect on productivity, employers in Finland believe that employees working remotely twice a week are less creative as compared to working on-site the entire working time. Only 25% of organizations see increased creativity when working remotely, whereas 36% of organizations see the opposite.

Some variation exists by industry when assessing the impacts of remote working on employee creativity. Over 52% of organizations in information and communication sector perceive decreased creativity from remote working, and only 8% see the opposite. Organization in manufacturing as well as professional, scientific and technical activities sectors the impact similarly on employees’ creativity. Organizations from all other sectors see remote working in the most positive way on employees creativity, in general.

Note: Statistics for financial & insurance activities sector (NACE code: K) are not published because the sample size is too small to ensure data confidentiality.

By contrast, employers are much more likely to perceive positive effects of remote working on employee job satisfaction, in general. Almost 64% of participated organizations believed that remote working improves job satisfaction, while only 9% believes negative effects.

Some variations exists across industries, however, the overall patterns is similar. Over 67% of organizations in professional, scientific and technical activities sector believed positive effects from remote working arrangements, while organizations in manufacturing sector perceived remote working having the least positive effect on job satisfaction (58%), overall.

Note: Statistics for financial & insurance activities sector (NACE code: K) are not published because the sample size is too small to ensure data confidentiality.