The Swinging Barn Door: Working From Home in Animal Health

Life is getting back to normal. Offices are opening up, and like box turtles emerging from their shells in the spring, employees are poking their heads back into the office.

Our Spring 2022 Attitudinal survey of Animal Health Jobs candidates included a new section on working from home. After two years of living and working in the same place, how do employees feel about it?

The nesting instinct

Working from home has become normal.  A whopping 87% of survey respondents currently employed in animal health worked at least part of the time from their own from homes; 66% work  at home more than half the time.

An overwhelming 93%  of respondents told us that working from home makes a job offer more attractive. Only 5% did not find added value in an offer including workplace flexibility

Having learned to manage work and personal time in the same space, employees have discovered the benefits of time away from the crowd. Among our respondents, 85% agreed that they are more productive when working from home or in a hybrid setup.

Stubborn as a mule or deaf as a Dalmatian?

Top talent is telling management quite clearly that they must offer hybrid working options. Without these, companies will lose the best candidates. 

Yet many companies don't seem to be listening. In a recent survey by Goodhire, 60% of managers agreed that employees would soon be required to return to the office full-time. Just over half (51%) thought that their employees wanted to do so. The same percentage expected pay cuts for employees who refused to return.

Oddly, survey 68% of those managers agreed that a fully remote workforce would not damage their bottom line, and could improve profitability. Nearly three-quarters (73%) said productivity and engagement had improved or stayed the same during the period of remote work. 

These leaders are out of touch. Candidates demand hybrid work options. They will shun companies that don't offer them. 

New day, new way

The world may be returning to normal, but "normal" has changed.  We've lived through a massive experiment in remote working. It seems that for knowledge workers, remote working....works.

Employees are shouting from the rooftops that they want the flexibility to work from wherever they feel the most productive. Employers who heed the call will find themselves more attractive to top talent. Those who ignore it are at risk of letting old-fashioned policies drag them down in the new world of work.

Get the full results of our 2022 Spring Attitudinal Survey by reading the White Paper here.

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