Teleworking has now established itself in the lives of executives. In its latest survey, published Tuesday March 12, the Association for the Employment of Executives (APEC) reveals that two thirds of them have gotten into the habit of working regularly from home, i.e. at least one day per week and more than two days for a quarter of them.
“One would have thought that over time we would see a decline, but not at all, the opposite is happening,” underlines Gilles Gateau, Director General of APEC. To date, 67% of executives now say they work remotely compared to 63% in 2021. “The practice continues to spread, not so much in large companies, where it is already very high, but in VSEs and SMEs,” he adds.
Beyond this anchor, the study validates another trend: for more than half of executives, teleworking is no longer a simple option but a ” acquired “. Thus, 7 out of 10 executive teleworkers would be unhappy if their company removed access to this mode of organization or reduced the number of days they use it.
For 45% of them, such a decision would even encourage them to change companies. “For businesses, this is an element of attractiveness that they must seriously take into account,” continues Mr. Gateau. Such membership is justified firstly by the time savings it allows on journeys, by the possibility of working in peace, of having more flexibility in the management of schedules and unforeseen events.
An interest for employees and businesses
“There are also more women who want to telework more”, notes Gabrielle Schütz, lecturer at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. She puts forward two major reasons: “On the one hand, the domestic burden rests more on them and they need more flexibility in their schedules, on the other hand, and it is said less but it is very important, they generally have less freedom over their workplace than men, they are less able to be absent and change their schedules, including among executives”she insists.
However, presenting teleworking as solely the work of employees would amount to giving a partial view of the situation. “Many companies have used teleworking to move further away or reduce their real estate space by focusing on flex office”, insists the researcher, so that, very often, “ employees, if they want to come on site, no longer see their colleagues”.
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