Driven by the distancing measures taken due to the pandemic, the home office and hybrid work continue to be adopted by some of the largest employers in the country, and the expectation is that they will be maintained, even with the advancement of vaccination.
The decision to continue with the option of remote work, at least for a few times a week, is in line with recent surveys, in which workers say they want to take advantage of the work experience they have had in recent years and prefer not to be at work. office every day.
According to Rais (Annual List of Social Information), of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the largest formal employers in the country are banking institutions (Banco do Brasil, Caixa, Bradesco and Itaú), the Post Office, companies in the food sector (BRF and Seara), teleservice (Atento) and health (Raia-Drogasil).
According to Rais criteria, the top of the ranking before the pandemic, in 2019, belonged to Correios and Banco do Brasil. According to the current data on the number of employees provided by the companies to the Sheetthe first place in 2022 may go to Itaú Unibanco.
With almost 100 thousand employees today, Itaú Unibanco migrated half of its staff to the remote model, with the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020.
In February of this year, with vaccination at a more advanced stage, the bank began to adopt three working models in administrative offices: face-to-face, for employees whose functions require a daily presence at the bank; hybrid, for teams that need to work in the offices frequently or in predefined situations; and flexible, which provides more autonomy.
In the case of Correios, currently with 88,500 employees, 2% (about 1,770) are working remotely. According to the company, even before the pandemic, as of the 2019 labor reform, teleworking is an option for part of the staff, “observing the legal conditions, as well as the convenience in providing services”.
At Bradesco, it is expected to keep around 30% of the workforce in the hybrid system for administrative areas with eligible activities.
“Learning from remote work, through a collective agreement with the union movement, we were the first large bank to commit to adopting this form of work after the pandemic”, says the institution, which has about 87.5 thousand employees.
They also believe that, in some areas, this type of work has become relevant for attracting and retaining talent.
Caixa had more than 56,000 employees (35.6% of the total) working from home, due to the pandemic, and had a positive return from those who worked remotely, especially due to greater autonomy and the possibility of reconciling work and family.
“With this, considering the current scenario, the implementation and percentages applicable for maintaining remote work in the company are studied”, says the bank’s advisory.
After using the modality during the pandemic, Banco do Brasil implemented the work in a hybrid format, with up to two days a week away from the office. Currently, around 4% of the 86,300 employees switch between remote and face-to-face work.
The institution says it has been following the trend of new work modalities since 2015, when it created a pilot project for some employees, and the need to adopt remote work during the pandemic reinforced the advantages of these modalities.
At the end of March, the government issued an interim measure regulating hybrid work. Specialists in labor law are still divided on the possibility that the new rules will encourage more employers to offer this type of work.
Of Atento’s 70,000 employees, around 35% work from home —​the remainder is divided between the hybrid and face-to-face models.
“The system has proved to be beneficial for everyone. This work format has expanded the possibilities of hiring and internal movement of professionals who, for some reason, prioritize the remote model”, says Ana Marcia Lopes, Vice President of People and Social Responsibility at Watch out in Brazil.
A resident of Sorriso (MT), consultant Vanessa Marquiafavel, 42, is an example of this. Graduated in letters and at Atento since the beginning of the year, she helps to develop interfaces for virtual assistants, which make the service provided by robots in call centers more humanized.
“I’m a computational linguist and I’ve been working from home since 2007. Before, the life of those who worked from home was a little more complicated, but the pandemic ended up leaving companies more prepared”, he says.
At home, she is able to make better use of her time with her husband, who is an agronomist, and her five-year-old son. “I still haven’t found a downside to home office.”
Raia-Drogasil, on the other hand, decided to keep the approximately 3,000 employees in the corporate area in the hybrid model. “We took into account all the lessons learned over the last two years”, says Patricia Vasconcelos Giacomo, director at the company.
When the return to face-to-face activities began, the pharmacy network, which has 50,000 employees, chose to strengthen the independence of the teams. “Being together now has another meaning, much deeper than completing a task. Teams are free to define when it makes sense to be there,” she says.
BIGGEST EMPLOYERS IN THE COUNTRY
- ​In 2019 (before the pandemic):
- º | Postal Service: 109.6 thousand
- º | Bank of Brazil: 104.5 thousand
- º | Cashier: 91 thousand
- º | BRF: 87.6 thousand
- º | Bradesco: 86.7 thousand
- º | Itaú Unibanco: 99.6 thousand
- º | Postal Service: 88.5 thousand
- º | BRF: 96 thousand
- º | Caixa and Bradesco: 87.5 thousand (each)
- º | Bank of Brazil: 86.3 thousand
*Up to the first quarter; BRF’s most recent data is from 2021
Sources: Empresas and Rais (Ministry of Labor and Social Security)
WORKER PREFERS TO BE HYBRID, SURVEYS SAY
A survey carried out with 1,000 people by Edelman Latin America in March shows that Brazilians are satisfied with their current jobs, a perception that has increased with remote work. For 61%, working from home increased job satisfaction, while only 16% said it declined.
What’s more, the study — which was commissioned by business technology support platform ServiceNow — says that 7 in 10 are working from home at least two days a week, up from 52 percent pre-pandemic.
Before the health crisis, 21% had never worked from home, and now there is only 1% in this situation.
“There were several discoveries and gains with remote work, and most do not want to give it up. What is observed is a tendency for the employee to negotiate a hybrid model with the company, whenever possible”, says Katia Ortiz, executive at ServiceNow in Brazil.
Among the positive aspects of the home office pointed out by the interviewees are the saving of commuting time (51%), the saving of money (43%) and more time with the family (41%). On the other hand, 28% feel more disconnected from work, and 27% say it’s easier to get distracted.
Ortiz adds that the company itself realizes that it is important to make employees more satisfied. “In the United States, there is a strong movement of employees resigning, also because they were forced to return to the office. To retain talent, the company ends up trying to offer alternative models and increase investment in technology.”
Another recent study, by Eaesp/FGV (São Paulo Business Administration School, from Fundação Getulio Vargas) and in partnership with PageGroup and PwC Brasil, found that 72% of executives say they believe that management has adapted to remote work , and 71% of employees have expectations of changes in the work environment, towards greater flexibility.
In smaller companies, the decision has also been to keep working days out of the office.
“By adopting the home office as an official model, we perceive advantages both in terms of employee satisfaction and in attracting talent. More than 40% are outside the Rio-São Paulo axis”, says Bruno Pereira, executive at Cortex, a big date that sells solutions for sales and communication, where work is completely remote for the 300 employees.
Among them is Amanda Sena, 40, manager of the customer service and marketing team. After working for three months at the beginning of 2020 in the face-to-face system, she migrated, like the rest of the company, to the home office and does not intend to return to the old routine.
“When I needed to go to the office, in the south of São Paulo, everything was more complicated: the chaotic traffic, public transport didn’t help. Now, I can live more with my husband, who is a musician, and our dog. company also only gained by having more outsiders.”
“Before the pandemic, our teams were concentrated in São Paulo and Curitiba. Today, we have people spread across six states. The home office also facilitated the hiring of technology professionals”, says Tayara Simões, executive director of the content creation platform digital NZN.
The company has 30% of its 117 employees working remotely and 70% in a hybrid system, going to the office twice a week.
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