A new Victorian Government survey has found more than 74% of employees surveyed believe working from home is “extremely important” to them, while more than 3,200 felt they couldn’t ask their current employer for permission to work from home.
More than 36,770 responses were received during statewide consultation on the Government’s plan to legislate the right to work from home two days a week.
Most employees surveyed said the ability to work from home would make them more likely to choose one job over another, and make them stay in their current job longer.
“The biggest-ever Victorian Government survey says work from home works for families and it’s good for the economy,” said Ms Allan.
“Of those who could work from home but currently don’t, most had requested it – and most were refused.”
“Liberal politicians and Liberal-aligned big business groups want to scrap work from home. The survey says thousands of Victorians have been denied work from home. That’s exactly why we’re protecting work from home.”
Survey respondents were also asked to rank the benefits of working from home. Saving time came out as the most popular reason, with more than 13,300 respondents saying their one-way trip to their workplace takes over an hour.
The second most popular benefit was saving money. More than 9,200 said commuting to their workplace costs between $25 to $49 a week.
The third-highest benefit of working from home was being able to focus without distractions.
Additionally, more than 28,700 participants told us they were more productive when working from home, in terms of both hours worked and milestones achieved.
The survey also found that two days a week is the most common work from home arrangement (10,207 respondents).
The nearly seven-week consultation period closed on Sunday night. As part of the online survey responses, it attracted more than 700 in-language responses and 295 formal submissions.
More than 1,000 responses were received in the first two hours of the survey opening, with 5,000 responses received by the end of the first day.
Employers who participated in the survey mostly had fewer than 20 employees.
Employers ranked “employee satisfaction” as the most important benefit of having a work from home policy, followed by having a bigger talent pool for hiring and higher productivity.
“A record number of Victorians have told us how they feel about working from home – and we’re listening,” said Acting Minister for Industrial Relations, Harriet Shing.
“We’ll use this data and consultation with industry to help us shape working from home laws that are fair and practical for everyone.”
Further consultation with businesses and industry groups is happening now, with 122 registrations for the online industry forums.
Fast Facts and Figures:
Of the 36,770 people who participated in the English language survey, 34,705 (94%) were employees and 2,065 (6%) were employers.
Of the 34,705 employees who participated in the survey:
- 19,774 (57%) participants were female, 13,864 (40%) were male
- 18,237 (53%) were parents or carers
- 28,601 (82%) people said they currently have the option of working from home and 10,207 (36%) of those, said they currently work from home two days a week.
- Of the 4,346 participants who do not work from home, but said it was possible to do their job from home, 2,469 (57%) per cent said they had already asked to work from home and, of those, 2,049 (83%) had been refused.
- Of those who’d had their request refused, 1,988 (97%) believed their workplace’s response was unreasonable and 1,549 (76%) said it had led to further challenges for them.
- 15,260 (44%) participants said that someone else in their household works from home and, of those, 12,705 (83%) said this had made a positive difference to their household.
- 25,724 (74%) participants said working from home was ‘extremely important’ to them and 4,449 (13%) said it was ‘very important.’
- 30,591 (88%) people told us the ability to work from home would make them more likely to choose one job over another.
- 30,466 (88%) participants said that having the ability to work from home would make them stay in a job longer.
- 24,787 (71%) said their ability to work from home would impact their decisions on where to live.
- 28,778 (83%) participants said they were more productive working from home, in terms of both hours worked and milestones achieved.
- 13,324 (39%) participants said their one-way trip to work takes more than an hour and 9,238(27%) participants said it costs them between $25-$49 per week to travel to and from work.
- The industries most represented were ‘professional, scientific and technical services’ at 5,284(16%) and ‘financial and insurance services’ at 3,955(12%).
- The number one age bracket for participants was 35-44 years old.
