Work-from-home policies are becoming stricter again. A quarter of all Belgian companies (16.6%) want to see their employees back in the workplace more often – at least four days a week. In some companies, more than half of the employees are always expected on the work floor.
On the other hand, barely 5 percent of employees want to go to the office more often. Younger employees in particular (33.8%) are even more in favor of working from home.
Lockdown effect
The classic arrangement of three days at the office and two days at home remains the most popular, with 60% of companies adopting it. Last year, this still was 65%. All this is evident from a survey conducted by HR service provider Acerta among 600 companies and more than 2,000 employees.
Five years ago, on March 13, 2020, to be precise, the first coronavirus lockdown took effect. Working from home, where possible, received a real boost. Since then, hybrid working has become commonplace in most Belgian companies.
Rules becoming stricter
Today, in many Anglo-Saxon countries, (large) companies are once again requiring their employees to come to the office every day. In Belgium, nine out of ten companies (>85%) still allow working from home.
A large majority of employers (67.6%) and employees (64.2%) are satisfied with the current balance between home and office work. However, in many cases, the rules regarding working from home are becoming stricter, especially in the largest companies.
Tuesday and Thursday are ‘office days’
Many organizations allow telework only for certain roles, while employees with on-the-job tasks or other operational roles must be physically present. For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, more than half of employees must always go to the workplace.
Tuesday and Thursday remain the most popular days to go to the office. This is also evident in the figures: nine out of ten workers are never allowed to work from home, whereas this drops to four out of ten for white-collar workers.
American trend
However, the American trend of completely banning remote work is not evident in our country for the time being, and many Belgians continue to follow the post-Covid-19 guidelines. HR expert Acerta developed the survey, in collaboration with Bart Meuleman, a sociologist affiliated with KU Leuven. It was conducted by the research agency Indiville among more than 600 Belgian employers and over 2,000 employees.
