Due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the special act announced in March, many companies decided to move to remote work. We decided to ask Polish workers about their experiences related to a “home office”. Between 27 and 30 March, a survey was carried out on behalf of NEXERA among 1064 active professionals who told us about what their work outside the office looks like.

How many of us work from home? 63% of those surveyed said that, due to the coronavirus epidemic, employers allowed them to move to remote work. At the same time, only one in three of the respondents (33%) admitted that all or almost all employees in the organization had benefited from this solution. 30% of respondents said that a small proportion of employees chose “home office”, although there is no obligation to stay in the office.

What makes it difficult to switch to a “home office"? The most common reason preventing the introduction of a remote work mode is the type of business that does not allow for the implementation of responsibilities online – this is how 81% of respondents asked why they cannot work from home. Nearly one in five respondents (19%) indicated that in his case, the transition to a “home office” was not feasible due to the lack of technology solutions for remote work on the side of the company (11%) or in the homes of employees (8%).

“As our survey showed, the real problems faced by those performing duties remotely are, among others, technical problems, such as with the internet, which was indicated by 48% of respondents. 35% of respondents said that there are no conditions for working at home,” commented Paweł Biarda, Member of the NEXERA Management Board for Sales and Business Development.

What tools are needed to work at home? According to 67% of respondents, the most important tool for remote work is a fast and stable Internet connection. In addition, when working at home, tools such as a smartphone, phone, laptop are also useful, as indicated by 59% of those surveyed, access to a work email (40%), and applications enabling contact with the team and with clients (37%). 21% of respondents can't work without cloud solutions for storing and sharing online files, and 1 out of every 10 respondents need social media to complete their tasks.

How do we work at home? Several weeks after companies started to move to remote work, more than half of the respondents said they were working the same or more efficiently at home than they were at work. 37% of respondents did not notice any difference in productivity, 18% said they were more efficient and less than 30% saw a decline in productivity.

What is disturbs you in working at home? Among the three most common challenges faced by remote workers, there was limited possibilities of teamwork (29% of respondents felt it was one of the main challenges), the inability to perform some tasks remotely (27%) and managing a dispersed team (27%). Other, less burdensome problems have been the transfer of knowledge to employees and the teaching of new skills, limited opportunities for consulting activities or tasks, obtaining new customers and contractors, and maintaining relationships with customers and stakeholders.

How to effectively work from home? “Our survey showed that Poles are aware that working from home requires self-discipline – this was confirmed by almost ¾ of the employees interviewed. In addition, almost 60% of respondents said they knew how to work effectively from home and it actually brings results. Working on yourself and learning how to organize time are not the only advantages of the situation. More than half of the respondents (51%) got to know better many software, applications and web tools they did not use before,” says Piotr Wieczorkiewicz, Member of the Operations Board at NEXERA.

The future of remote work “The current situation shows that access to a stable network is not only an extension of the possibilities in terms of spending free time and providing additional forms of entertainment. Access to a reliable and stable Internet connection is one of the basic tools to fulfil obligations online. It is a medium as important as electricity or water, which becomes necessary for work, business development or education. As many as 6 out of 10 respondents believe that the coronavirus epidemic will change their approach to work and we will work more often remotely. Counteracting digital exclusion will be possible thanks to the creation of a fibre-optic network optic network – equal to or above all in those areas where it has not been possible so far” comments Jacek Wiśniewski, president of NEXERY.

Methodological note: The NEXERA Survey - the survey was conducted by InsightOut Lab on behalf of the telecommunications operator NEXERA. The interviews were collected using the Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method on the Ariadna panel. The study was carried out between 27 and 30 March 2020 in a  group of 1064 active (working) people.