Working from home remains top choice for Jersey professionals

Jersey professionals believe working from home (WFH) is still the best option for both employers and employees according to our latest poll.

When asked the question, ‘Who does working from home really work for?’ 82% of those surveyed said they thought it benefitted staff and businesses compared to 85% last year.

Despite most respondents still agreeing that WFH is good for both, the number of people believing it is better for employees than employers nearly doubled, from 7% to 13%.

Shelley Kendrick, Managing Director, Kendrick Rose, said: “While the WFH and RTO (Return to the Office) debate rumbles on at a global level, most professionals in Jersey want, and indeed enjoy, some form of hybrid working. Over the past year we have seen more organisations settle into flexible working arrangements and while these may initially have been designed to suit employees, employers have seen the benefits too in terms of talent satisfaction and retention.”

Over 100 people took part in the Kendrick Rose polls, which ran on Linked In over several days in June 2023 and June 2024.

Data from the Office of National Statistics shows 26% of people in the UK worked from home some of the time in 2024, up from less than 5% before the pandemic. The biggest advantage cited for WFH by employees is an improved work life balance, while the most significant disadvantage is people finding it harder to work with others.

Shelley said: “Hybrid working or WFH is now a possibility for many financial and professional services employees who are not in customer-facing roles, or who can work remotely when they are not needing to meet customers face-to-face. Technology has been part of the solution, but the biggest shift has been mindset – redefining productivity around clear outputs at individual, team, and organization levels.”

By 2025 Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 to 2009 is expected to make up 27% of the global workforce.

Shelley said: “The trends we have seen with millennials are more extreme with Gen Z. These digital natives spent the formative years of their education under pandemic restrictions. While millennials expressed an interest in, and pushed for a better work life balance, Gen Z enters the world of work with clear expectations of hybrid working or working remotely. This, coupled with their different styles of communication – a preference for online or text rather than face-to-face conversations means we are unlikely to see RTO come back in a meaningful way soon.”

Who does working from home really work for?

2024

• It’s better for employees 13%
• It’s better for business 0%
• It can be as good for both 82%
• It can be as bad for both 5%

2023

• It’s better for employees 7%
• It’s better for business 1%
• It can be as good for both 85%
• It can be as bad for both 7%