Brazilian worker wants more work from home than companies want to give

Brazilians would like, on average, to work 2.3 days from home in the reopening after the pandemic, but, also on average, their employers intend to adopt only 0.8 days of home office.

The data are from the Working from Home Around the World study, carried out by six researchers, including Nicholas Bloom, professor in the Department of Economics at Stanford University in the United States.

Brazil (alongside Egypt) is the country where the distance is greater between what workers want and what companies are willing to offer on days away from the office.

On average, people are currently working 1.5 days from home (1.7 in Brazil). Asian countries concentrate the highest and lowest indicators: in India, this level reaches 2.6 days and is lower in South Korea (0.5 days).

THE SheetBloom says that studies show that in different countries these employees work more productively from home, are happier and are less willing to leave the company.

“Employers are adopting the home office not because they have to, but because it generates profit. The best driver of remote work is the fact that it improves the company’s financial results.”

He says companies in the US and Europe tend to be more open to working from home. “In South America, they are still a little behind. One factor is culture, another is housing structure — you need physical space, especially for a couple to be able to work from home.”

Bloom believes that companies still face low management capacity for working from home, which requires good performance evaluation tools. “Since you can’t be with the employee, you need to review processes to make sure they’re actually working.”

This would explain the greater number of hybrid (who spend days at home and in the office) and remote workers in Brazil being concentrated in large companies, especially multinationals, as they usually have the best performance management systems.

“Smaller companies, typically family-run, tend to be more informal and rely on direct management, which is difficult to do remotely,” says the researcher.

In the opinion of FGV Ibre (Brazilian Institute of Economics, Fundação Getulio Vargas) researcher Fernando Veloso, the divergence between the will of companies and workers occurs because the benefits that the employee perceives when staying at home are not always valued by companies.

“Workers in general report having a productivity increase in working from home greater than the increase perceived by employers, which is largely related to the time saved in commuting to work.”

The survey with 27 countries mirrors sample averages, with groups of full-time workers, with a relatively good level of education and who have easy access to smartphones, computers and the like to respond to an online survey.

Two rounds of research were carried out, in mid-2021 and early 2022, with workers from 18 industry sectors aged 20 to 59 years.

WORKER WOULD EXCHANGE PART OF THE WAGE FOR MORE DAYS AT HOME

Another data that caught the attention of the researchers was the percentage of the salary that workers would be willing to exchange for two or three days working outside the company.

On average, they would be willing to lose 5% of their usual salary for the possibility of having two or three days working from home – among Brazilian respondents, this percentage is 7.4%.

Bloom argues that this clarifies how working from home, in addition to being beneficial to employees, offers a huge restructuring opportunity for companies.

Veloso points out that this is an average, but how much one would be willing to lose for the chance to work from home is a number that should vary widely among workers. “Probably those who accept willing to have a salary reduction did not have a significant loss of real income during the pandemic.”

Although the new types of work have become more common with the health crisis, studies on remote and hybrid work in Brazil and in other countries show that this is a reality for a minority of workers with higher education.

“Having completed higher education greatly increases the probability that the worker can work from home. The reason is that workers with higher education in general have more technology-intensive occupations or that are better adapted to this model, such as liberal and information technology professionals “, says Veloso.

A survey by Catho pointed out that home office vacancies grew 496% in the first half, compared to the same period in 2021. This increase was mainly due to advertisements in search of programmers, business consultants and test analysts.

Recently, a report by Sheet also showed that, even with the reopening of the economy with the advance of vaccination, the largest employers in the country kept part of their teams in hybrid work and had no plans to suspend the modality reinforced with the pandemic.

Working as a linguist for a call center company, Vanessa Serrani celebrates the possibility of keeping her job at a company based in São Paulo and continuing to live with her family in the Midwest. “The freedom and support we have are unique. I don’t think about going back to face-to-face.”

FEAR OF LOSING TALENT SHOULD STRENGTHEN HOME OFFICE, SAYS RESEARCHER

In Bloom’s assessment, competition should force the company to adopt more work-from-home. “If you’re up against other companies, anything that makes you more productive and keeps employees happy will be adopted.”

On the other hand, he says he believes that market forces will lead Brazilian companies to adopt working from home to increase profits and grow. “We’ve seen this in the US, where working from home is now widely adopted as a practice to improve employee performance.”

He points out that the adoption of hybrid work is not something that needs to be pushed by governments, as companies increasingly tend to allow employees to work from home one, two or even three days a week as a way to increase sales and save money. costs.

According to labor law specialist Ricardo Calcini, with the new telework labor legislation in Brazil, the company can force the employee to return to the face-to-face system, provided that this communication is made at least 15 days in advance.

“If a hybrid shift is established, this must be recorded in the contract, because the logic of the teleworking or distance work legislation is that this systematization of the hybrid regime is defined in a contractual amendment.”

> How to convince your boss to work from home?

• Best for all. When ordering, highlight the benefits remote or hybrid work can have for the business, rather than just listing the personal benefits
• In numbers. Base the argument on data, showing superiors that you had a higher income when you were at home or that you were able to give more suggestions and be more proactive when working remotely
• Flexibility. Don’t seem inflexible, listen to the company’s arguments to go back to face-to-face and make a counter-proposal, such as going to the office for fewer days a week or only at meetings and events
• When it’s necessary. In addition to flexibility, speak openly to the boss if working from home is a possibility that would facilitate the family’s routine, whether to take care of children for a few days or a sick family member.
• Diversity. Those who live far from the company’s headquarters may remember that the pandemic made some employers aware of the advantages of having employees from different regions on the team, which is made possible by the home office.
• Increase remote. For those who are already at home and want to ask for a raise, it’s best to do it in person or at least set up a video meeting. Avoid starting the conversation by surprise or ordering via email or text