The research company Kantar regularly monitors issues related to the working environment and well-being. Signe Kaņējeva, Kantar's Director of Large Clients, says that over the last three years, there have been no significant changes in the working patterns of employees - the proportion of employees who work only at their workplace, in a hybrid mode or only from home has remained stable. Remote working is more common in information and communication services, finance and insurance.
There are also differences between age groups. "Employees aged 45 to 65 are more likely to work remotely, but this may be related to education and perhaps also to the type of occupation or profession. Younger workers - 18 to 24 years old and also 35 to 44 years old - are more likely to work in a hybrid mode. But this is also likely to correlate to some extent with the education or types of jobs held by these groups. The older employees who work in the workplace are more likely to be blue-collar workers, service workers, sales workers, low- and middle-income workers, workers in education and health, workers in small businesses, workers in other cities than Rīga," Kaņējeva said.
HR expert Arta Biruma said that employees value the possibility to choose their working hours as an added bonus. "If they have comfortable working conditions at home and nothing disturbs them, they can spend no time traveling and work from home. At the same time, again, if there are small children at home or it is not comfortable enough, he can go to work. So from the employees' point of view, it is very good if the organization provides flexibility.
"And now studies have already shown that there is a part of people, a small part, who only want to work from home, a small part who only want to work in the workplace. The majority of people are willing to shift according to needs and according to opportunities," said Biruma.
The Kantar survey involved 920 participants.
