Some 40% of white-collar employees currently go to the office every day, while 28% work in a hybrid system and one third work exclusively remotely, according to a survey conducted by a recruitment platform, write Agerpres.

„The office market has suffered a lot in recent years as more and more employees have preferred the home office to the corporate office. As a result, some of Romania’s office building owners are already turning to alternative solutions for using empty space, while companies are redistributing the budgets they would have allocated to rent and utilities. However, hybrid working is one of the solutions that helps to maintain office space occupancy rates while meeting employees’ need to reduce commuting time as well as meeting with colleagues. Currently, 28% of white-collar employees work in a hybrid system, while another 40% commute to the office every day. However, about a third of employees work exclusively from home,” Bestjobs said in a statement sent to AGERPRES on Thursday.

According to the source, during the pandemic, 7 out of 10 survey respondents worked from home or in a hybrid work arrangement. Thus, the data indicate that very few employees have returned to the classic style of work, which involves going to the office every day.

Moreover, companies have had to adapt, introducing new facilities to attract people back to the office or flexible working options. In this respect, 14% of respondents say their employer allows them to work from home for limited periods, 26% on a hybrid basis and 21% indefinitely.

Flexibility of working arrangements has become so important that 60% of respondents said that they themselves (27%) or their colleagues have considered changing their job for this reason, opting for one that allows them to work as they wish.

„The balance of power between companies and employees has changed since the pandemic, and this is seen in the power of employees to change a job that does not offer them the flexibility they now need. The remote work model has changed people’s approach, who have now come to value as a standard benefit what was once perceived as an extra perk,” explained Ana Visian, marketing manager Bestjobs.

The return to the office, for those who returned in full or in hybrid form, took place gradually. Half of employers decided in 2022 to bring their teams back to head office, 12% decided this year, and for others 4% are following. Among the reasons employers gave employees for justifying the need to return to the office were the need to reconnect teams and socialising between colleagues and departments (36%), the fact that remote work was only needed during restrictions (19%), decreased team performance (12%) and the impact on organisational culture (5%). 28%, however, gave employees no justification.

In the new working environment, team meetings have also moved predominantly online (70%), as bringing teams together in the same physical location has become increasingly difficult.

The survey was conducted in June, on a sample of 1,382 internet users in Romania.

Bestjobs is one of the leading online recruitment platforms in Romania. At any given time, there are over 35,000 jobs and 4.6 million professionals connected to the job market on the platform.