Personal and Work-Life Balance 2021 - Main Results

‘Flexible working’ means any type of working arrangement that differs from the traditional Monday to Friday, nine-to-five model – and gives some flexibility on how long, where, and when employees work. Flexible working hours are at the discretion of the employer. Note that respondents could generally choose more than one option when replying and that the survey was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have impacted on the flexible working arrangements in general.

In the 2021 survey, respondents were asked about the types of flexible working arrangements that they availed of in the 12 months previous to interview. At an overall level, one in six (16.7%) employees availed of flexible hours, where they availed of a working pattern outside the traditional nine-to-five model. Analysis of the data by NACE economic sector shows that employees in the ‘Financial, insurance and real estate activities‘ sector availed most of flexible hours in the previous 12 months (31.9%), followed closely by employees in the ‘Professional and Scientific‘ sector (27.0%), and the ‘Information and communication’ sector where just over one quarter (25.5%) of employees availed of this flexible working arrangement. By comparison, only one 3.7% of employees in the ‘Education’ sector availed of flexible hours in the previous 12-month period. See Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1.

Almost one third (32.8%) of ‘Managers, directors and senior officials’ availed of flexible hours at work at some stage in the 12 months previous to interview, followed closely by workers in the ‘Associate professional and Technical’ occupational group (26.8%). By comparison, only one in thirteen (7.7%) workers in the ‘Caring, leisure and other services’ broad occupational group had availed of this flexible working arrangement. See Table 3.1 and Figure 3.2.

One in five (19.5%) employees worked part-time at some point over the 12 months prior to interview. The economic sector where employees availed most of part-time work were the ‘Accommodation & food service activities’ sector at 58.5%, while 43.5% workers in the ‘Sales and customer service’ occupational group worked part-time during the previous 12 months. The sectors where employees availed least of part-time work was 'Information and Communication' (3.1%) followed by 'Construction' (4.4%). See Table 3.1.

Many workers worked from home or from ‘remote-working’ hubs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has become more feasible since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey results show that nearly four in ten (39%) workers availed of remote working at some point over the 12-month period prior to interview.

The economic sector with the greatest number of workers availing of remote working (at some point in the previous 12 months) was the ‘Education‘ with almost nine in ten of workers availing of remote working (86.2%), followed closely by the ‘Information and communication’ sector (64.2%) and the ‘Financial, insurance and real estate activities’ (63.1%). Over half (53.7%) persons working in the ‘Public administration and defence; compulsory social security’ sector were remote working at some point over the previous 12 months. See table 3.1.

Analysis by broad occupational group shows that nearly two thirds of all 'Professionals' (62.7%) were remote working for some or all of the 12 months prior to interview, followed closely by 'Managers, directors and senior officials’ and 'Associate, professional and technical' both at 50.7%. This compares with over one in eight (13%) of those in the ‘Sales and customer service’ group. See Table 3.1.

At an overall level, full-time workers availed of remote working more than part-time workers. In large organisations (100 people or more), nearly half of the full-time workers (48.9%) availed of remote working, compared to less than a quarter (22.6%) of their part-time equivalents. See Table 3.2 and Figure 3.3.

Analysis of the data by household composition shows that over one in five (20.6%) workers residing in households of two adults with children, availed of flexible hours during the previous 12 months. However, for employees who were residing in households with children and more than two adults, only 5.8% availed of this flexible working arrangement. In households with children, where there were three or more adults also residing, over seven in ten (70.7%) did not avail of any flexible working arrangements in the previous 12 months. See Table 3.3.

Employees who had availed of flexible hours in the previous 12 months were asked a follow-on question on the number of days on which they availed of flexible hours in the previous four weeks. Of workers with children who had worked flexible hours, over one third (34.8%) availed of flexible hours for almost all of the previous four weeks (17 days or more), compared with just 14.1% of workers with no children. See Table 3.4 and Figure 3.4.