Work-from-home is a preferred option for most: Wisdomjobs.com

Tech-savvy job search portal, Wisdomjobs.com recently revealed the findings of its latest survey on work-from-home jobs. The study offered valuable insights into employee preferences where majority of candidates said that they would favour companies that offered the facility over those that didn’t. A whopping 70% of the women surveyed said that the option play a key role in deciding if they would join the company or not. 40% of male participants also said considering all other things remain the same, they would choose a workplace that allowed work-from-home over one that had rigid office hours.

The reasons for the rising popularity of telecommuting are many. 65% women participants and 48% male participants in the Wisdomjobs.com survey opined that working from home is the best way to find the perfect work-life balance. 60% of candidates even felt that they could perform their everyday tasks with equal ease and effectiveness when they were away from a traditional office set-up.

Among the list of cities, Bengaluru and Mumbai topped the list with 60% and 52% respondents respectively favouring the work-from-home option. This was followed by 46% in Delhi and 40% in Hyderabad. Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata were among the last three on the list of cities that were favourably disposed towards telecommuting with 34% candidates in Pune, 25% in Ahmadabad and 20% in Kolkata.

Talking of specific sectors, 70% of IT/ITES jobs were deemed offer at least partial flexibility when it comes to working from home. This was followed by 59% jobs in data services, 42% in the healthcare sector, 31% in education and 28% in finance.

Commenting on this trend, Ajay Kolla, Founder & CEO of Wisdomjobs.com said: “It is being observed that an increasing number of companies are now willing to incorporate the work-from-home option into their HR policies. That said, it is upto a particular company to find the right balance between optimizing employee well being and minimizing impact on business.”

The results of the survey also threw up opinions of those who were opposed to the work-from-home option. 30% of those interviewed said that the facility often means a drop in output quality. 20% of candidates felt that the telecommuting trend creates communication gaps in the teams while 26% were of the opinion that such employees may get a raw deal during the promotion process with candidates on desk job being favoured over them.