The level of job satisfaction and work-life balance among employees working from home is higher than among those working in the office, which is why 78 percent of employees want to continue working from home, according to scientific research conducted by Mplus Group in collaboration with leading scientists and scientific institutions, presented today at the Croatian Employers’ Association.
Mplus Group included additional questions about working from home and well-being in its regular employee engagement survey, in collaboration with researchers from various universities, including Harvard, Oxford, and the University of Zagreb. After collecting 4,554 questionnaires from seven countries, the analysis was conducted by renowned scientists who linked job satisfaction and working from home, and the work was accepted and published in the prestigious journal Frontiers of Psychology.
“Before the outbreak of the pandemic, 27 percent of employees at Mplus worked from home, 4.7 percent hybrid, and 70.7 percent from the office. In March 2020, with the outbreak of the pandemic, 70 percent of employees switched to working from home, which was an increase of 61 percent. Women were more represented in the sample, making up 70.29 percent of respondents. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we noticed that working from home was a successful business policy for Mplus, so we retained it after the pandemic ended, but we also wanted to scientifically verify whether our employees think the same. We thank all of them for participating in the research,” said Bruna Kostelac Košir, Chief Human Resources Officer at Mplus Group.
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As the most common advantages of working from home, employees highlighted time savings on commuting, which allowed them more free time and a more balanced daily life, in which they had more time for family. The pilot project was first conducted in Germany, and the results obtained did not differ significantly by country, nor by age groups and gender of respondents.
“The strong growth of employee income and standards will continue in the coming year. Entrepreneurs are intensively working on this trend, but it also presents us with the biggest challenge. In the Croatian labor market, there has never been such a fierce battle for each individual employee, and our key goal as employers is to retain and attract workers. Today’s employees want mobility, opportunities for rapid advancement, learning, adaptation to their needs in organizing work, they want greater autonomy and the opportunity to express their specific needs within the work environment, such as working from home or remote work. A stable and well-paid job is the best demographic policy, and a stable job in the 21st century is one that provides opportunities for employee development and growth, quickly adapts to new trends, and evolves towards new industries and technologies,” said Irena Weber, Chief Executive Officer of the Croatian Employers’ Association.
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The issue of working from home, which has also been given a new category – remote work, is regulated in Croatia by the Labor Law, and according to the new amendments, an increasing number of employers are signing annexes to contracts with their employees.
“I proudly highlight the recent amendments to the Labor Law that regulated working from home, i.e., working at a remote location and remote work, which is always performed through information and communication technology. The key difference between working at a remote location and remote work is that at a remote location, the employer is aware of the work location and it is possible to discuss potential reimbursement of costs, while in remote work, there is no such obligation. A comprehensive regulation of working at a remote location and remote work will ensure legal certainty for the contracting parties of the employment relationship that is executed outside the employer’s premises, and a flexible approach to such a mode of work will provide many advantages for both workers and employers,” said Dražen Opalić, Director of the Labor and Occupational Safety Administration, Ministry of Labor, Pension System, Family and Social Policy.
