One out of every three people in Malta who can work from home go to the office instead, according to an EU-wide survey.

Findings published by EU agency Eurofound show that in Malta, 73 per cent of those whose job is partially teleworkable, and 33 per cent of those whose job is entirely teleworkable, never telework.

These are among the highest figures in the EU, with Malta being surpassed only by Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania.

Spain and Cyprus registered similar but slightly lower figures than Malta.

On average, 57 per cent of people in the EU whose work is partially teleworkable, and 23 per cent whose work is entirely teleworkable never telework.

According to the report by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), in eastern and southern member states, it is more common to work entirely in the workplace – even when the jobs are teleworkable – than is the case in other countries.

Data provided to Times of Malta shows that during the first year of the pandemic – in summer of 2020 – one out of every three people worked from home only.

This dropped to 16 per cent in spring of 2021 and 10 per cent last spring.

On the other hand, the percentage of those who worked only from their workplace increased slightly from 59 per cent in 2020 and 58 per cent in 2021, to 63 per cent in 2022.

A significant increase was registered in hybrid workers – up from eight per cent in 2020 to over one in four (26 per cent) in 2021 and 2022.

'Teleworking likely to increase' - MEA

Malta Employers’ Association director general Joseph Farrugia believes however that several local companies are going through an experimental phase, with teleworking likely to increase.

Farrugia noted that while in other countries companies are imposing teleworking to save on office space expenses, this is very rare in Malta.

“However, the trend is for telework to increase as more employees are requesting it and it is becoming a means for companies to attract people to work for them. There are also cases of employees who prefer not to telework,” he told Times of Malta.

Efficiency issues, he noted, also play an important part.

A survey conducted by MEA revealed that although there was a dramatic increase in teleworking when companies were on shutdown, 60 per cent of companies reported that employees were equally productive while teleworking.

Thirty-three claimed a drop in efficiency and only seven per cent said employees on teleworking were more efficient.

This highlights the fact that teleworking is not an automatic solution to work organisation, Farrugia said.

“However, many companies are passing through an experimental phase to determine the right balance between working on premises or remotely,” he said.

“Clearly there are pros and cons to both and in general hybrid systems work best, but one can expect a shift towards increased telework in the coming years.

“This will involve a change in work attitudes that requires a stronger element of trust between employers and employees, better systems to support remote working and also training managers and employees to adapt to novel forms of supervision.”

According to a 2020 Eurofound paper, the large expansion of telework since the COVID outbreak was strongly skewed towards high-paid white-collar employment.

New data from 2022 suggests that the higher rate of telework was not sustained, particularly in countries where the industrial structure and other factors do not allow a rapid permanent shift, research manager Eszter Sandor told Times of Malta.

However, more research is needed and only time will tell whether the teleworking rate will decrease further as the pandemic slowly ends, and if so, in which countries, sectors and occupations it will remain higher.

Over 60 per cent prefer to work from home

This fifth round of the Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey: Living in a new era of uncertainty meanwhile shows that despite the gradual return to the workplace for the majority of workers, the preference to work from home, at least partially, remains very strong.

Over 60 per cent of both women and men would prefer to work from home at least several times per month if there are no pandemic-related restrictions, with the preference to telework being somewhat higher among women.