Irish have little interest in remote working – survey

Irish workers have little interest in working remotely but are very flexible when it comes to the industries they work in or the future direction of their companies. These findings are part of Global Attitudes Towards Work, a survey carried out by US software group Qualtrics

Salary, work/life balance and location ranked as the top metrics for Irish workers when considering where and who they wanted to work for.

Like their counterparts abroad, employees here prefer working for large established companies rather than start-ups.

The survey found that Irish workers did not want more feedback from management on their performance, with only 36.7 per cent expressing a preference for feedback weekly or more often, compared with more than 50 per cent of Spanish workers.

When asked about attributes in a good manager, the Irish said caring about employees (14 per cent), honesty (13 per cent) and competence (11 per cent) were the most important, while energy, adaptability and being a good mentor were least important.

Responses

The survey was based on responses from approximately 6,250 workers in

Australia

,

Canada

,

France

,

Germany

,

Greece

,

Ireland

,

Italy

, the

Netherlands

,

New Zealand

,

Poland

,

Spain

,

Sweden

, Britain and the US. It found more Irish people were dissatisfied with their jobs (51.2 per cent) than “extremely or moderately satisfied” (48.8 per cent).

The Germans, French and Americans reported the highest levels of satisfaction with their jobs, with over 64 per cent expressing satisfaction.

When it came to work/life balance, the French and Americans reported the greatest satisfaction, with 68 per cent saying they were extremely or moderately satisfied, compared with just over 50 per cent of Irish workers.

After years of recession and financial turmoil, the Greeks reported the lowest levels of satisfaction (36 per cent).

Irish workers have above average levels of personal productivity at work, with respondents here saying 67 per cent of hours worked are productive, compared with Germany (72 per cent of hours) and Italy (48.5 per cent).

Punctuality is not as important to the Irish as other nationalities, with only 41.2 per cent regarding it as being “extremely or very important” while Sweden (67.3 per cent), followed by Germany (66.7 per cent), placed the most emphasis on punctuality.