5 years of teleworkingEmployer survey results January/February 2025

Introduction :

At the beginning of 2025, the Vias institute and the Antwerp Management School Next Generation Work Center of Expertise conducted a study on teleworking among Belgian employers. The online survey was conducted between January 20 and February 17, 2025, among 759 employers, 25% of whom were business owners, 40% managers, and 35% human resources managers.

The survey was conducted at the request of the FOD Mobiliteit en Vervoer / SPF Mobilité et Transports supported by VBO FEB , HRPro.be, SD Worx , Securex , De Tijd and HRmagazine .

This survey is for hrpro.be one of many we supported, also during the pandemic.

Teleworking today and tomorrow

In 2025 , structural teleworking is the most represented among our respondents: in 86.1% of organizations employing more than 500 workers and in around 3/4 of smaller organizations.

In the future , we also expect that the majority of organizations, regardless of their size, will continue to offer structural teleworking.

If we look at the maximum number of days of teleworking per week, we see that it is most often 2 days (34.9%) or 3 days (33.5%).

If we consider the average number of days of teleworking per week, we find the same figures: workers who telework do so on average 2 or 3 days per week.

Impacts of telework

To get a good insight into how employers view teleworking, we interviewed business leaders, managers, and human resources managers. [1].

The vast majority of our respondents ( 75% business leaders , 81% managers , 83% HR managers ) clearly see the positive impact of teleworking on employee satisfaction and motivation . The positive effects on attracting and retaining talent are also evident for three-quarters of employers.

According to about 2/3 of respondents, teleworking has a negative impact on the connection between colleagues (68%), collegial relationships (63%) and informal conversations (68%). A negative effect that was already noticeable in the survey on the impact of COVID carried out by AMS (Vangronsvelt & De Vos, 2021) [2]. Organizations are trying to address this through both informal (63% - e.g. after work events, team building) and formal (74% - e.g. team meeting, return to work day) physical meetings.

Our respondents consider that the impact on workload is rather limited (business leaders 57%, managers 53%, HR managers 61% do not see any impact, a little more than a quarter see a decrease, a little more than a quarter an increase). The impact on absenteeism due to illness, meanwhile, is positively perceived by most respondents. Nearly one in two employers (48% business leaders, 60% managers, 63% HR managers) sees absenteeism due to illness decrease thanks to teleworking (compared to 45%, 37% and 33% respectively who do not see any impact).

The impact of teleworking on productivity is also mostly judged positively (business leaders 44%, managers 71%, HR managers 66%) although 32% of business leaders also see a negative impact.

These results are not so different from those of the 2021 AMS employer survey: even then, 47% of business leaders considered that teleworking had positive effects on worker concentration (compared to 23% who believed it had negative effects).

When it comes to working together, respondents observe more difficulties. The majority of respondents believe that remote working complicates the search for solutions as a team (business leaders 57%, managers 41%, HR managers 50%, compared to respectively: 17%, 24%, 14% who believe that remote working facilitates the search for solutions). Team management (business leaders 54%, managers 39%, HR managers 53%) and interaction during meetings with participants present in the office and online (business leaders 67%, managers 53%, HR managers 62%) are also more difficult.

Organization of Telework

We also asked respondents at what organizational level decisions regarding teleworking were made.

Regarding the number of days (during which workers are expected to be at the workplace), in about half of cases, the decision is made at the organizational level. This is framed in a teleworking policy. To a lesser extent, the decision is made by the manager, the team, and the worker themselves—all three in about 15% of cases. If we focus on smaller organizations (<10 workers), we find that the decision is much more often made by the worker himself (38%).

Regarding the days on which workers are expected to return to work. In about a third of cases, this decision is made at the individual level, and in another third at the team level, which is much more common than at the organizational level (about 15% of respondents).

When it comes to daily planning , we find that workers can almost nowhere fully decide their working hours when working from home (less than 10%). More than one in two respondents indicated that workers are generally expected to work during working hours but are allowed to arrange certain times of the day flexibly. Just over a quarter of respondents mentioned the slightly more flexible option: workers are allowed to decide when they work when working from home but must work a certain number of fixed hours per day (e.g. meetings, consultations, etc.).

In our 2021 employer survey – 1 year after the start of the pandemic – we also saw that business leaders did not necessarily view teleworking negatively. At that time, half of CEOs saw that teleworking improved their employees’ concentration, while a quarter noticed negative effects. One third also saw positive effects on employees’ efficiency in performing tasks, compared to the same number who saw negative effects. However, it will surprise many how clearly employers recognize the positive effects of teleworking on productivity. One possible explanation is that we often see or hear the extreme examples in the media, such as companies taking stricter positions and demanding that all employees return to the office full-time. - Professor Kathleen Vangronsvelt (AMS)

An ideal policy?

When we talk about “the ideal teleworking situation” [3], we observe differences in the perception of teleworking by managers and business leaders. While 22% of managers think that the maximum number of days a worker can telework should be increased, only 4% of business leaders surveyed share this opinion (the majority of both groups think that the maximum number of days should not change: business leaders 66% and managers 57%). As for the flexibility with which an employee can plan their teleworking days, 23% of managers think that it could be revised upwards compared to only 7% of business leaders. (Again, the majority of both groups opt for the "status quo": business leaders 71% and managers 64%).

We can clearly see the so-called dido-rush (Tuesday-Thursday rush) in the figures, with a lot of traffic on the road on Tuesday and Thursday. Teams and employees often choose themselves, based on their personal preferences and work-life balance, when they go to the office. - Professor Kathleen Vangronsvelt (AMS)

The importance of teleworking for road safety :

Over the past five years, the number of workers teleworking at least one day a week has increased significantly. This development has led to a significant decrease in commuting. The Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport estimates that 34 million kilometers are avoided every day thanks to teleworkers [4]. The Vias Institute has calculated that these avoided kilometers directly contribute to safer mobility. In 2023, teleworking prevented approximately 1,126 road accidents and 80 serious injuries, and saved the lives of 9 road users.

To further improve road safety, encouraging teleworking remains a key measure. This measure is part of the "All for Zero" objective, which aims to halve the number of road deaths by 2030 and, ultimately, to reduce the number of road deaths to zero by 2050.

The employer survey reveals how business owners, managers, and HR leaders currently view remote working. In the next phase, the results will be used to provide useful tools for employers.

Every commute that is not taken also means fewer people on the road during rush hour. We calculated that in 2023, 1,126 car accidents were avoided and thus 9 fatal accidents. Traffic remains a fact that is often overlooked when discussing the benefits of teleworking. - Dr. Manon Feys (Vias Institute)

The future

What is the future of Telework? That is the question many ask. It's not going away. But - and these are the lessons from Covid - we need to organize for it; Organizations need to balance presence and absence, physical and digital encounters, working at home and working at the office.

Let's not forget that telework was not new when the pandemic started 5 years ago. It's not going away. Employers should think carefully about the message they are sending out with a RTO. It is not the best idea in times of labor shortage" - David Ducheyne hrpro.be

Look at Telework as an organization design challenge, with many constraints and opportunities.

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[1] Self-employed people and workers who also responded to the questionnaire were not included in this report.

[2]Vangronsvelt, K., & De Vos, A. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 is likely to affect organizations. Over.Werk. Tijdschrift van het Steunpunt Werk, 31 (1), 95-101.

[3]We divided the respondents into two categories: business leaders, managers, and HR managers who have a teleworking policy, and business leaders, managers, and HR managers who do not have a teleworking policy within their organization. The results presented here refer to organizations that have a teleworking policy.

[4] https://www.teletravailler.be/en-chiffres/bemob-enquete-telewerk-in-belgie-in-2024/