The more telecommuting opportunities employers offer, the more attractive their vacancies. This is the conclusion of a study by Eline Moens, who is affiliated with the economics department of Ghent University. Employees are even willing to accept less wage surcharges in exchange for more telework.
Moens – supervised by promoters Stijn Baert, Elsy Verhofstadt and Luc Van Ootegem – had a representative sample of 500 Flemish employees evaluate the attractiveness of job offers. They differed not only in terms of wages, but also in the extent to which telework is possible.
The results show that the relationship between teleworking opportunities and job attractiveness is almost linear. For example, if the number of possible teleworking hours increases by 10 percentage points from 20 percent (one day) to 30 percent (one and a half days), employees find the job on average 2.2 percentage points more attractive and they are satisfied with 2.3 percentage points less wage increase. “In plain language: if the wage would normally increase by 10 percent for a new job, it would be just as good to increase only 5 percent if there is an extra teleworking day in return,” explains Moens.
Employees find teleworking particularly attractive because of the better work-life balance and greater autonomy. “In jobs where teleworking is less possible, it is particularly important that employers communicate their efforts to maintain work-life balance and autonomy in completing tasks. This way they can compensate for the lower attractiveness of jobs without teleworking” , said Moens.
Finally, the research shows that employees who are more conscientious are generally less interested in more extensive telecommuting options. One explanation could be that it is sometimes less efficient to perform certain tasks at home. “Employers should keep a close eye on the self-selection of less conscientious employees in jobs with more telework in order to avoid lower productivity,” warns labor economics professor Stijn Baert.
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