More than a third (34%) of employers in Germany say that mandated office returns make it difficult to find qualified candidates.
43% of the workforce works four or more days per week.
Due to distractions and the amount of meetings they attend, 52% of German employees find it difficult to perform their primary duties at the workplace.
Owing to mandatory office relocations, businesses in Germany are finding it difficult to fill positions, and employees are leaving their employment owing to a lack of work-life balance and misaligned cultures. According to a recent study by the world’s leading authority on workplace design, Unispace.
Returning for Good, a Unispace Global Workplace Insights report, found that while 43% of the German workforce currently spends four days in the office, only 22% want to be in the workplace this frequently. The report combined the results of an extensive survey of 9,500 employees and 6,650 business leaders from 17 countries worldwide.
86% of German companies have enforced various office returns, which has made it difficult for 34% of firms to fill positions. Employee turnover rates, which 25% of employees say contributed to their decision to leave their position in the previous two years, are reportedly making these recruitment challenges worse. Another 25% left because they didn’t like the job environment.
Despite the effects of regulations on the workforce, 41% of companies predict that by 2025, workers will be back in the office at least four days each week.
Also Read: Unispace: UK workers work less than any other nation
The effect of offices on productivity
Key complaints about the workplace in Germany at the moment were a lack of privacy and a lack of access to calm, focused areas. While 35% of workers claimed they lacked the privacy they could find at home, over a third (36%) claimed they were more productive in a calm environment while working remotely. The fact that 52% of German employees said they find it difficult to perform their primary responsibilities efficiently at work is more proof of this incapacity to function productively in the workplace.
“Our findings reveal that German businesses need to give more in order to actively entice their employees back to the office, even though they want them to come in more frequently. The top reason for going to work was to socialize with coworkers (33%), but employees also report being more distracted there, suggesting that businesses should consider the types of spaces they offer and whether they support creating a relaxing and effective working environment.”
“While they can use mandates to force employees to come back to work, the data shows that this is not particularly effective and that employees will leave if they are forced to go to an office when they do not want to, which will only make the already difficult hiring and retention issues many businesses are already facing worse.”
Source: HRTech Series
