Moneyweb reports that Discovery Insure’s new Work From Home Index, developed because of the Covid-19 lockdowns, shows that people are only physically travelling to work three out of five days a week.
There has been steady growth in the percentage of clients travelling to work since restrictions eased after the initial hard lockdown. But overall, the insurer’s clients are travelling to work less often, and this has peaked at about 80% of the normal level. Among the patterns that the insurer uncovered from its telematics data were that a large percentage of Discovery Insure clients were not going into ‘work’ consistently on the same days each week. This points to a changed pattern of expectations whereby more workers are enjoying increased levels of flexibility. The proportion of people going into ‘work’ three or more days in a week is 10% less than pre-Covid levels. The proportion of people going into ‘work’ every day during the week is 20% less than pre-Covid levels. The most popular days for traveling to work appear to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The least favoured day is a Friday, with around 20% fewer trips recorded on that day. While the data was not specifically ring-fenced to white-collar/office workers, employees are unable to perform their roles remotely in most so-called blue-collar jobs. Discovery Insure CEO Anton Ossip commented: “It is also interesting to see how external factors such as load shedding and fuel price increases will likely have an impact here, with load shedding making it difficult for some to work from home, while on the other hand fuel price increases make it more expensive to travel to work. Regardless, there is definitely a strong sense of people returning to a ‘pre-Covid normal’.” Large banks and insurers have rapidly adopted a hybrid work model, with some stating that only 40% of staff would be expected on campus (at head offices) on any given day. Anecdotally, the large legal, audit and professional services firms have swung toward remote work, with a minority of staff expected in daily.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Moneyweb
- Lees ook, SA’ners ry deesdae op dié dae werk toe, by Maroela Media
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