In Normandy, teleworking remains far from being a sustainable trend

Since the start of the health crisis, the effects of teleworking undergone in terms of productivity and business performance, or the emergence of a new managerial culture have been widely documented.

But what are the realities behind these trends, one year after the implementation of the first restrictive measures? How many companies have adopted this new practice sustainably and in what forms? What factors favor its development?

To answer these questions, the Normandy Regional Council conducted a study, at the start of 2021, among 2,046 Norman companies, representative of the territory both by their size, their location and their sector of activity.

It emerges in particular that, if teleworking concerns more and more companies, this evolution remains fragile in many aspects and could not be as durable as expected.

A limited share of employees

A first reality must therefore be established: admittedly, teleworking is reinforced after confinement but remains in Normandy only the fact of 22.3% of companies, and the latter only implement it mainly for less than 25% of employees.

Sectoral differences are clearly visible. Before confinement, industry (16.1%) and services (12.6%) used teleworking more than the average for Normandy companies. The sectors that use it the least are agriculture (2.7%) and construction (3.8%).

This ranking remains the same after the crisis. Industry (36.8%) still exceeds services (29.3%) and recourse to teleworking remains marginal for agriculture (5.4%) and construction (11.3%). The latter sector has experienced significant growth (nearly 200%) while the growth rate is 100% in the agricultural sector and around 130% for services and industry.

However, both construction and industry only use telework for a small part of their employees, certainly the support functions. For more than two thirds of these companies, it concerns less than 25% of their employees.

Size also has a major effect on the use of telecommuting. The larger the company, the more it uses teleworking. This is the case before and after the health crisis. We note the remarkable figure of 91.7% of large companies using teleworking after the crisis.

This is consistent with the analysis on the sector of activity because industry and services, which use teleworking more than the average, constitute 91.6% of large companies with more than 250 employees. The size of the company and its sector of activity therefore have a significant influence on the use of teleworking.

Adaptation to restrictive measures

The questionnaire is also rich in information on the motivations for using telework. Norman companies using teleworking had to choose between several reasons:

• Avoid traveling

• Offer more flexibility on schedules

• Respond to employee demand

• Save costs related to company buildings

• Meet government requirements

• Other

The main reason mentioned is the response to government requirements (cited by 71.2% of respondents) then the fact of avoiding travel expenses (38.4%) and the response to employee demand (22.7% ).

Among the other reasons mentioned, it should be noted:

• Avoid employee gatherings (2% of respondents)

• Homework (1.3% of respondents)

• Simplicity, increased efficiency (0.8% of respondents)

Distrust of digital

In addition, companies that do not telework have a certain distrust of digital technology, see less of the positive side of digital exchanges on the interaction between companies and even have a negative perception on the interactions between employees.

Indeed, for the companies surveyed, digital technology has a positive effect on inter-company collaboration (75.9% of companies affirm this) but not on collaboration between employees. Only 32.2% of companies agree with this statement. Companies that use teleworking after confinement see more the positive aspects of digital technology, which improves both collaboration between companies (85.7% of them) and between employees (59.4% of them).

The use of this form of work, which increased significantly after confinement, only applies today in 22.3% of the companies questioned and mainly partially with less than 25% of the employees concerned. The main reason mentioned is the response to government requirements.

Once these health measures have been lifted, what will remain of teleworking? Difficult to predict. A priori, the companies that use it the most perceive the advantages of digital technology more for collaboration between companies or between employees.

These organizations, mainly large companies in the industrial sector, will therefore no doubt maintain this system in a piecemeal fashion. It is however unlikely that teleworking will spread more and reach the smallest companies, which perceive less the interest of digital. A trend which concerns the Norman territory, but which can undoubtedly be easily extrapolated to the whole of the French province.

The figures presented in this article come from the preliminary results of a major survey conducted by the Regional Council of Normandy. The Normandy Regional Council is at the origin of the creation of an observatory of digital transformations in partnership with the chambers of commerce, agriculture and trades, two research laboratories (the Metis of EM Normandie and the CEREQ of the University of Caen Basse Normandie), the prefecture and the Banque des Territoires.

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