Insurance and financial services was highlighted by Stats NZ as the industry where staff were most likely to work from home, with 71% of staff working remotely in 2020 – and, according to insurers, they are not planning to ditch flexible working anytime in the near future.
The Stats NZ figures showed that information, media and telecommunication professionals were the second most likely to work remotely (66%), followed by other professional, technical, administrative and support services (59%). However, Southern Cross Health Society CEO Nick Astwick noted that this rise in hybrid working had also come with its challenges - notably, that employees were less likely to take sick days when they need them, and he urged insurers to put more focus on promoting a ‘healthy hybrid work model.’
Southern Cross’s recent Workplace Wellness Report 2021 showed that 62% of businesses reported employees continuing to work while sick - a number which was significantly higher for large organisations (77%) and lower for smaller ones (46%). Astwick said that there were likely a number of drivers behind these figures, such as lower overall levels of sickness, but also some ‘soldiering on’ mentality.
“That has been one of the biggest outcomes of our jolt into flexible working,” Astwick said.
“The annual leave per employee in 2020 was the lowest it’s been in the 10 years that we’ve been doing this. We saw a big drop in absenteeism, but we also saw 62% of businesses saying that employees are continuing to work from home when they are sick.”
“If we look behind that number, we find that there are a couple of things going on,” he explained.
“There was obviously less sickness and injury going around in 2020 because of lockdown, particularly heading into winter. The other big change, particularly with the public health messaging, was that a large amount of physical businesses were saying that if employees were sick, they should stay at home - but if you’re in the insurance sector, then chances are, you’re set up to work from home.”
2018 figures for finance and insurance services showed that 64% of staff had some form of flexible working arrangement - a figure which went up in 2020, and is likely to have climbed even higher this year. Astwick noted that there are several factors driving low absenteeism, despite rising levels of stress across all sectors.
“Ninety per cent (90%) of businesses had sent out public health messages, so that was a big shift,” Astwick said.
“But if you actually look behind what drives absenteeism, there are three key things. The first factor is still the non-work sickness, the cold and flu, the second is caring for others like children and family when they were sick, and the third is the non-work injury.”
“The reason for more people working from home when they are sick is simply that they have the ability to, and if you look at care for children, you can be home while working,” he explained.
“There is still a bit of ‘soldiering on’ mentality going on in the New Zealand psyche, and the other factor is high workload. That puts some demands on employees to keep working. Those three things are really driving the highest work from home levels now compared to what we’ve seen before.”
When it comes to the future of hybrid working, Astwick said while there are some ‘extremes’, businesses will generally try to find a happy medium between remote and office-based work. But either way, he said we should not expect to see flexible working disappear anytime soon.
“When you talk to the businesses, they do think that hybrid working is here to stay,” Astwick said.
“We see some companies and organisations saying “we’re fully remote now”, while at the other end, some businesses - around 40% - are saying they can’t do that, and they’re going to stay fully physical.
“Most are lying in that ‘hybrid’ space, and I do think that’s here to stay. It has been seen as a good thing overall, and businesses should now focus on those things that are causing some challenges with flexible working, and try to find the right balance.”
