nearly one in two executives would resign if teleworking was eliminated, according to a study

Four years after forced teleworking during confinement due to Covid-19, remote working has become common practice, according to a study by Apec (the Association for Executive Employment), published Tuesday.

It will be four years at the end of the week since the first confinement forced a large part of the French to work from home. Today, the practice is no longer forced but widely adopted, reveals a study by Apec (the Association for the Employment of Executives), published Tuesday March 12. This survey confirms that the reduction in time spent in transport, the possibility of working in peace and even the flexibility of working hours make teleworking a practice now favored by executives.

So much so that almost one in two executives interviewed in this Apec study would resign if the possibility of teleworking was eliminated in their company. “Teleworking has really become established in practices and is highly appreciated” by executives, indicates Gaël Bouron, deputy head of the Apec study division, interviewed on franceinfo.

franceinfo: What are the figures for teleworking for executives today in France?

Gaël Bouron : Two thirds of executives now telework at least one day a week compared to only 20% in February 2020, before the first confinement. We can therefore clearly see that teleworking has really become sustainable and established and that executives greatly appreciate having access to it. Only 6% of them would like to telework less and many, conversely, want to telework more.

Are there fewer candidates during recruitment when the possibility of teleworking is not offered?

The vast majority of executives indicate that they would be unhappy if their company reduced or eliminated access to teleworking. We even have six out of ten young executives who say they would resign if access to teleworking was removed. When we know that these young executives are very popular on the job market, going backwards on the subject would be very delicate for companies, which would risk losing their talents. Today, only 50% of executives would be ready to join a company that does not offer teleworking, so by not offering it, a company is depriving itself of half of the potential candidates. More and more of them are mentioning the possibilities of teleworking in their job offers.

The perception of teleworking is very positive. However, are there any limits?

Three main areas of optimization are identified by the executives. The first is the question of the blurring of the boundaries between personal and professional life. But what is a little more new is the functioning aspect of work collectives: we can clearly see that it is not always easy to have collectives work in hybrid mode. And then there is the question of professional development and the fact that teleworking could hinder the development of young executives, because of isolation, for fear of missing important information, because there may be be more difficult to ask for help from colleagues or even for fear of missing professional opportunities by being a little far from the office. But the vast majority of young and older executives perceive more advantages than disadvantages of teleworking.