eWORK 2000 - European Telework Week

New Ways to Work 2000European Telework4.4.2.7. Telework is met with great interest by employees, but interest by establishments is somewhatmore reluctantIn addition to those already practising telework today, 59% show an interest in working from home eitheroccasionally, alternating or permanently. Since 1985 these figures have increased dramatically. 15 years agojust between 8% and 23% of the interviewees showed an interest in telework (Huws/Korte/Robinson 1990).The variations across European countries are rather small. Most countries show figures in the 60 to 70%range with Sweden leading the field with almost 90% of the labour force already teleworking or at leastinterested in doing so.Interest and Practice in Telework Overall in % of Labour Force10090© empirica807060%50403020100Sweden Netherlands Finland Ireland Denmark Italy EU10 France UK Germany Spainteleworking alreadyinterested in teleworkSource: empirica (ECATT 1999), cf. www.ecatt.comThe situation from the businesses’ point of view is not quite as clear-cut. Among establishments practisingtelework, between 55% and 83% (depending on the type of telework) show an interest in extending telework.Here, Germany is leading the field.Among businesses interest in an introduction of telework is comparatively low with a top 17% in Germanycompared to a European average of 11%. However, it needs to be borne in mind that Germany has startedfrom a rather low level of organisations already practising telework (approx. 30%) compared to countries likeSweden, Finland and Denmark which show figures of around 60% of companies already practising teleworktoday.It appears as if in the short-term telework diffusion will mainly occur as a result of company-internal diffusionand less so from additional businesses introducing telework.- 34 -