Initial findings from the “Future of Work” survey
How flexible is your way of working? And how would you like to handle this in the future? These were just some of the questions addressed in last year’s survey on the future of work, which gave all ETH employees the opportunity to share their experiences and preferences regarding the new, flexible work arrangements at ETH Zurich. The results are now in.
We often read and hear about how the pandemic has forever changed the way we work and collaborate, and that flexible work arrangements – such as remote working and working from home – are increasingly popular and just as valid as working on-site. But is this really true? And what are your experiences as ETH employees with this new, flexible way of working?
The “Return to the Office & Future of Work” survey addressed these questions in November 2022: all ETH Zurich employees had the opportunity to describe their current work situation and what working conditions they would prefer in terms of flexibility and mobility. The results are now available.
Key findings from the survey
A good 31 percent of all ETH employees took part in the survey. According to the FHNW School of Applied Psychology, which conducted the survey on behalf of ETH, this is considered a good response rate for a survey of this size and the results can be generalised. Response rates were particularly high among people with a workload of 90 percent or more, (72 percent), people with permanent contracts (roughly 59 percent) and those aged 36 and older (roughly 50 percent).
Here are some of the key findings that can be drawn from the responses of the 4,231 employees who completed the survey:
1. Hybrid working is here to stay
Hybrid working – employees working on-site as well as from home – is currently the most popular working arrangement. This is likely to remain so: on average, survey participants said they wanted to spend 56 percent of their working time on-site and 35 percent at home. Certain employee groups, such as IT employees, consider an even higher proportion – around 50 percent – to be the ideal work-from-home ratio. In contrast, employees in some departments want a lower proportion of about 30 percent. This may be because, for example, experimental researchers need to be in the laboratory and consider a personal exchange on-site as being of key importance to their research progress.
2. Better understanding and team spirit on-site
What are the reasons in favour of working on-site at ETH? When asked about this, more than 80 percent of survey participants stated that mutual understanding was easier on-site, that there was more communication and that team spirit was perceptibly stronger.
Just under one-fifth of employees agreed with the statement that they had to work on-site at ETH because their supervisors insisted on their being present. "ETH can’t grant an actual “right to work from home”. After all, there are jobs that must be done on-site because they can’t be done from home. According to our survey, this applies to 17 percent of participants,” says Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership. “Nevertheless, I urge all managers whose employees wish to work from home some of the time to please allow this wherever possible. If you do insist on on-site attendance, it’s important to clearly explain why.”
3. More time and autonomy when working from home
What are the benefits of working from home? Here, ETH employees most frequently chose not having to commute (79 percent agreement), autonomy in both the choice of location and time management (78 percent agreement) and a better work-life balance (69 percent agreement).
The reasons included “higher productivity” (59 percent agreement), “more motivated when working from home” (49 percent agreement) and “CO2 savings” (47 percent agreement) – especially among those employee groups that also showed a higher overall preference for working from home. These included senior assistants, IT staff, administrative staff and postdocs.
4. Challenges of working from home
What difficulties can arise when more and more people work from home? The two challenges most commonly cited were the waning identification with the organisation or team, and the danger that dissolving boundaries leads to working all the time. What’s interesting here is that those groups of employees who currently work from home rarely and wish not to do so at all in the future believe more strongly that identification with the organisation and the team decreases as working from home increases.
All results at a glance
Would you like to take a closer look at the survey and its results? All results, overview diagrams as well as further explanations can be found in the protected pageoverall presentation of the survey results (ETH login necessary).
More about "Futur of Work".
What we can learn from this
What do these results mean? And where do we go from here? To start with, the following key conclusions can be drawn from the survey results:
- Flexible working should continue to be permitted and supported: A large proportion of the survey participants have already adopted a hybrid work arrangement and would like to continue with it. Working from home should therefore remain an option at ETH and receive even more support in future.
- No one-size-fits-all solution: However, in addition to a clear trend towards hybrid working, the survey also shows that the needs and options among ETH employees vary greatly. In science, on-site work is often a fundamental requirement for research, while many administrative employees (who are also represented in the departments) can easily do their work from home, for example. The latter also tend to want to work from home more. This means that a uniform, ETH-wide regulation on hybrid working – for example, 60 percent on-site, 40 percent from home – is neither sensible nor feasible.
Going forward
Of course, work on the “Future of Work” concept is far from over even now that the survey results have been made available. The next step will be to analyse the results in more detail to define measures and recommendations that will then be discussed with the Executive Board as needed. We expect to be able to provide more information on further steps in the summer of 2023.
More about "Future of Work"
General information on flexible working at ETH can be found on the Future of Work website.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email the Vice Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership at:
Always up to date
Would you like to always receive the most important internal information and news from ETH Zurich? Then subscribe to the "internal news" newsletter and visit Staffnet, the information portal for ETH employees.