Genesis Property: More than 70 percent of employees want to work in the office or in a hybrid system in 2022

Romania has ended the state of alert almost two years after the start of the pandemic, and companies shift their operational plans moving forward based on an increasing number of employees returning to the office in the near future. Nearly 60 percent of employees say their company’s policy is to work only from the office or in a hybrid system with mainly physical presence, while another nearly 30 percent go to the office only when they need to interact with colleagues or feel the need to socialize. More than 70 percent want to work from the office in 2022 or at least in a hybrid system, according to a recent survey of 1,073 employees nationwide by Genesis Property.

Currently, almost 45 percent of employees work only from their office, as a result of their company’s work policy for this year, and another almost 16 percent have to go to the office every week, without the employer imposing a certain frequency. Most prefer to work alongside team members on-site at least three days a week (39.1 percent) and only 3 in 10 employees still prefer to work remotely, the Genesis Property survey also shows.

“In the past two years, the flexibility employees received when it came to working has fundamentally transformed both their professional lives and relationship with the office. Remote work represented a solution to the current health challenge, but doing it for such a long time brought back a nostalgia for pre-pandemic office interactions. People want to go back to the office at least in a hybrid system, and they need healthier workspaces adapted to the work model of the future”, says Stefan Tudos, Genesis Property Vice President.

Only 34 percent of employees consider that their office is now safer for their health than it was a year ago, and more than 16 percent say they are still concerned for their health when they work on-site, considering the evolution of cases earlier this year. Some 90 percent believe that their colleagues are at least partially compliant with health rules when working in the office. At the same time, more than 26 percent consider that they face similar risks for their health while en route to the office to when being present in the workplace, with more than 28 percent using public transport.

The Genesis Property survey on employees’ perception of building health was conducted nationwide in February 2022 via the iVox platform on a total sample of 1,073 internet users in Romania. Some 57 percent of participants are women, over 60 percent are aged between 20 and 40, and 60 percent have a net income of more than 3,000 RON.