Employers' approval of working from home is growing.

© Bitkom

According to the survey, location-independent working is gaining ground in more and more companies. In 2016, almost one in three companies (30%) allowed home offices, compared to just one in five (20%) in 2014.

According to Bitkom, this trend is set to continue. 46% of companies expect the proportion of their employees working from home to increase over the next five years. 50% expect the proportion to remain constant. 'Digital technologies make it possible to work independently of time and place. Working from home is becoming part of everyday life for more and more employees,' says Bitkom CEO Dr. Bernhard Rohleder.

Clear rules for working from home

Many employers have strict rules about working from home. Three out of four companies (74%) whose employees work from home have set certain days on which working from home is not permitted so that all employees are available for joint appointments - and this is also the opinion of Bitkom.

Six out of ten (61%) make being in the office the rule and working from home the exception, for example on just one day a week. In just under one in two companies (46%), working from home must be approved by the line manager on a case-by-case basis. Rohleder: 'Flexible working from home requires clear rules. It requires trust on the part of the company and self-organization and self-discipline on the part of the employees.

Reasons against working from home

Companies decide against working from home for various reasons. Two thirds of companies (65%) whose employees do not work from home state that working from home is not possible for all employees and that no one should be treated unequally. More than half (58%) believe that productivity decreases without direct communication with colleagues. And almost as many (55%) say that working from home is generally not planned. For just over one in three companies, the fact that employees cannot be contacted at all times (33%) speaks against flexible working from home, while just under three in ten say that working hours cannot be controlled (29%). For one in four companies (27%), the legal regulations on occupational health and safety speak against working from home. Other reasons include concerns about data security (22%), technical equipment being too expensive (16%) and fears that employees will identify less with the company (9%).

Bitkom is committed to modernizing the legal requirements and adapting them to the digital age. 'Self-determined working hours are hindered by legal hurdles such as the rigid eight-hour working day and the eleven-hour minimum rest period. Anyone who checks their work emails late at night and is back at work the next morning is breaking the law,' says Rohleder. 'Labor law is no longer up to date on these points and puts employees in the wrong on a massive scale. It is high time to change these outdated rules.