Belgian companies are tightening their homeworking policies. One in six or 16.6 per cent of companies in Belgium expects its employees to return to the office at least four days a week. Last year, that figure was only 11 per cent according to a survey of 600 companies and more than 2,000 employees conducted by human resources service provider Acerta.
In many Anglo-Saxon countries, (large) companies are once again requiring their employees to come into the office every day. In Belgium, work-from-home policies have not yet been completely abolished. Nine out of ten companies in Belgium still allow working from home, and a large majority are satisfied with the current balance between working from home and working at the office.
However, in many cases, agreements on working from home are becoming stricter. The proportion of companies that specify which days employees are required to come to the office rose from 8.2 per cent to 13.4 per cent in one year. Tuesday and Thursday remain by far the most popular office days.
‘The fact that working from home is permitted does not automatically mean that every employee can make use of it,’ says Ellen Van Grunderbeek, labour market expert at Acerta.
‘Many organisations only allow homeworking for jobs that are suitable for it, while employees with tasks on the shop floor or other operational roles must be physically present. We also see this in the figures: 9 out of 10 workers are never allowed to work from home, while for white-collar workers this drops to 4 out of 10.’