Survey on home office among suppliers: A stocktaking and outlook
This survey among members of automotiveland.nrw not only provides important conclusions for the current discussion on the expansion of home office, but also valuable information on where companies see an urgent need for research in order to successfully anchor home office in the working world in the longer term.
Home office – more is not possible!
More home office? Customers don’t want to, parents can’t
Suppliers reject law
Supplier industry has opened the door to the virtual company
Survey brings conflict between homeschooling and home office to light
The ease with which politicians called for lawmakers to further expand home offices has startled those who have used investment and management to allow workers to work from home, initially to ensure child care in the face of closed daycares. A survey found that the supply and tech industry was among the first in NRW to invest heavily in equipment and licenses, and turn traditional processes in their companies on their heads, to enable their employees to work from home to coincide with the first kindergarten and school closures in March 2020.
The survey now found that this industry has not only been particularly quick, but has been very consistent in making the switch. More is not possible. At least not without further knowledge of the home office as a new working environment. That’s why calls to further intensify home office by making it a legal requirement are met with incomprehension.
One hundred percent home office is possible, but not everywhere
Depending on how high the manufacturing share is in a company, 50-100% of employees work from home. In the case of consultants and engineering service providers, the entire workforce works from home or reports only one person per area who is present in the office as part of a shift model. Laboratory areas and construction, on the other hand, tend to require presence, but here, too, there has been a switch to working from home where possible. Many companies leave it to their employees to organize teamwork from the home office. Even before Corona, especially in international companies, work processes were standardized and virtual meetings were the order of the day. Self-management is the magic word for many. Nevertheless, not all of those who can, want to work from home. At one engineering service provider, 20 percent prefer to work from the office. That’s because the limits of the home office are evident among employees at home.
Not everyone wants to work from home
It’s clear from the survey that home office reaches its limits where employees and their families need to homeschool or home-garden at the same time.
For one thing, bandwidths are not available everywhere at home that allow several people to work online at once in a data-intensive manner. And what the survey brings to light is new: Lack of or poor homeschooling concepts and formats mean that the parent or parents in the home office cannot focus on their work. This potential for disruption also seems to be magnified when there are multiple children at home whose schools teach online in completely different ways. We know from the survey that companies and individuals have personally offered support or training to schools or teachers, these offers have been rejected in many cases. We can only be very surprised about this! Everywhere solidarity is written in capital letters, but here people think they can do without it.
Bad homeschooling spoils good home office
So it’s not just inadequate digital infrastructure and equipment that limit digital working, it’s simply the lack of an efficient homeschooling concept that pushes employees to the breaking point sooner in the home office than in the office. So, if policymakers want more home offices from business, they must first make their own house, the education sector, fit for the digital age.
Not every customer takes home office into consideration
Another reason why, from the suppliers’ point of view, the intensification of virtual collaboration from home is hardly possible lies with the customers. Although automakers or major parts buyers themselves have sent their employees to the home office, they are less and less willing to adapt to the home office situation at their subcontractors. There are different assessments. However, automotiveland. nrw e.V. believes it can glean from the responses:
Wherever the cooperation or joint development work between supplier and customer is also emotionally consolidated through personal relationships, mutual consideration is not a problem. But companies are now operating in one of the most competitive markets.
Creativity needs interpersonal relationships and emotions
At this point, the survey reveals the sore point of virtual work. Of course, companies have organized the world of work in such a way that employees are regularly invited to virtual staff meetings, and supervisors also hold virtual conferences with their teams, and even organize virtual coffee breaks. However, the short conversation “between door and door” is missing and even sophisticated conference platforms with great image technology cannot transport emotions or intermediate tones.
Especially when creativity and ingenuity are required at the beginning of a technical development process or when solving a problem, and topics and processes are hardly structured, real interpersonal communication cannot be dispensed with. If you consider that around 75 percent of value creation in the automotive sector is carried out by suppliers, these companies have long since ceased to be parts suppliers and have become development partners. Many research projects on electromobility and autonomous and connected driving are based in NRW and the city triangle. The companies themselves want to manage the optimum between home office and presence work so as not to risk their innovative strength.
Home office has pushed the door to digitization wide open
Even if home office cannot be intensified further, and some respondents even consider it desirable to bring their employees back to the office in greater numbers, it is becoming apparent that internationally networked companies in particular – and there are quite a few of them among the suppliers in the Bergisch region – are relying on virtual workflows in the long term. One company is already contractually guaranteeing home office workplaces to newly hired employees. Others are already addressing the problem of unused office space in this context in the survey.
Collective bargaining partners reach consensus on home office arrangements
When it comes to regulating home offices, companies have found that they have been able to reach amicable agreements with employees and employee representatives on implementation during the lockdown. Principle problems with the collective bargaining agreement or labor law were not mentioned in the survey. Clarification is needed, also with regard to tax issues, should home office now become a long-term part of the working environment for the large group of employees.
How does the kitchen become an ergonomically optimal workplace?
In the long term, companies are more concerned about the health of their employees. After all, it is completely unclear what an ergonomically correct workplace should look like at home. In the office, everything is regulated and measured down to the last detail. The work has not become less or less strenuous – just because it is now performed in the private home. In this context, many companies also pointed out that there is far too little knowledge about how a team and the employees themselves have to organize and structure a home office working day in the best possible way.
Indications of an urgent need for research
From the perspective of automotiveland.nrw e.V., its members and supporters, these survey results not only provide important conclusions for the current discussion on expanding the home office and for the nonsense of prescribing it to companies by law, but also valuable indications of where there is an urgent need for research. The survey results have been published by automotiveland.nrw e.V. as “Statements” on its homepage.
The survey result
The automotive Cluster surveyed members and partners in the supplier industry in the Bergisches Land and Rhineland at the turn of the month Jan./Feb. 2021. Responses were requested on the situation, conflicts and an assessment.
Survey on home office among suppliers: A stocktaking and outlook
This survey among members of automotiveland.nrw not only provides important conclusions for the current discussion on the expansion of home office, but also valuable information on where companies see an urgent need for research in order to successfully anchor home office in the working world in the longer term.
Home office – more is not possible!
More home office? Customers don’t want to, parents can’t
Suppliers reject law
Supplier industry has opened the door to the virtual company
Survey brings conflict between homeschooling and home office to light
The ease with which politicians called for lawmakers to further expand home offices has startled those who have used investment and management to allow workers to work from home, initially to ensure child care in the face of closed daycares. A survey found that the supply and tech industry was among the first in NRW to invest heavily in equipment and licenses, and turn traditional processes in their companies on their heads, to enable their employees to work from home to coincide with the first kindergarten and school closures in March 2020.
The survey now found that this industry has not only been particularly quick, but has been very consistent in making the switch. More is not possible. At least not without further knowledge of the home office as a new working environment. That’s why calls to further intensify home office by making it a legal requirement are met with incomprehension.
One hundred percent home office is possible, but not everywhere
Depending on how high the manufacturing share is in a company, 50-100% of employees work from home. In the case of consultants and engineering service providers, the entire workforce works from home or reports only one person per area who is present in the office as part of a shift model. Laboratory areas and construction, on the other hand, tend to require presence, but here, too, there has been a switch to working from home where possible. Many companies leave it to their employees to organize teamwork from the home office. Even before Corona, especially in international companies, work processes were standardized and virtual meetings were the order of the day. Self-management is the magic word for many. Nevertheless, not all of those who can, want to work from home. At one engineering service provider, 20 percent prefer to work from the office. That’s because the limits of the home office are evident among employees at home.
Not everyone wants to work from home
It’s clear from the survey that home office reaches its limits where employees and their families need to homeschool or home-garden at the same time.
For one thing, bandwidths are not available everywhere at home that allow several people to work online at once in a data-intensive manner. And what the survey brings to light is new: Lack of or poor homeschooling concepts and formats mean that the parent or parents in the home office cannot focus on their work. This potential for disruption also seems to be magnified when there are multiple children at home whose schools teach online in completely different ways. We know from the survey that companies and individuals have personally offered support or training to schools or teachers, these offers have been rejected in many cases. We can only be very surprised about this! Everywhere solidarity is written in capital letters, but here people think they can do without it.
Bad homeschooling spoils good home office
So it’s not just inadequate digital infrastructure and equipment that limit digital working, it’s simply the lack of an efficient homeschooling concept that pushes employees to the breaking point sooner in the home office than in the office. So, if policymakers want more home offices from business, they must first make their own house, the education sector, fit for the digital age.
Not every customer takes home office into consideration
Another reason why, from the suppliers’ point of view, the intensification of virtual collaboration from home is hardly possible lies with the customers. Although the car manufacturers or major parts buyers themselves have sent their employees to the home office, they are less and less willing to adapt to the home working situation at their sub-suppliers. There are different assessments. However, automotiveland. nrw e.V. believes it can glean from the responses:
Wherever cooperation or joint development work between supplier and customer is also emotionally consolidated through personal relationships, mutual consideration is not a problem. But companies are now operating in one of the most competitive markets.
Creativity needs interpersonal relationships and emotions
At this point, the survey reveals the sore point of virtual work. Of course, companies have organized the world of work in such a way that employees are regularly invited to virtual staff meetings, and supervisors also hold virtual conferences with their teams, and even organize virtual coffee breaks. However, the short conversation “between door and door” is missing and even sophisticated conference platforms with great image technology cannot transport emotions or intermediate tones.
Especially when creativity and ingenuity are required at the beginning of a technical development process or when solving a problem, and topics and processes are hardly structured, real interpersonal communication cannot be dispensed with. If you consider that around 75 percent of value creation in the automotive sector is carried out by suppliers, these companies have long since ceased to be parts suppliers and have become development partners. Many research projects on electromobility and autonomous and connected driving are based in NRW and the city triangle. The companies themselves want to manage the optimum between home office and presence work so as not to risk their innovative strength.
Home office has pushed the door to digitization wide open
Even if home office cannot be intensified further, and some respondents even consider it desirable to bring their employees back to the office in greater numbers, it is becoming apparent that internationally networked companies in particular – and there are quite a few of them among the suppliers in the Bergisch region – are relying on virtual workflows in the long term. One company is already contractually guaranteeing home office workplaces to newly hired employees. Others are already addressing the problem of unused office space in this context in the survey.
Collective bargaining partners reach consensus on home office arrangements
When it comes to regulating home offices, companies have found that they have been able to reach amicable agreements with employees and employee representatives on implementation during the lockdown. Principle problems with the collective bargaining agreement or labor law were not mentioned in the survey. Clarification is needed, also with regard to tax issues, should home office now become a long-term part of the working environment for the large group of employees.
How does the kitchen become an ergonomically optimal workplace?
In the long term, companies are more concerned about the health of their employees. After all, it is completely unclear what an ergonomically correct workplace should look like at home. In the office, everything is regulated and measured down to the last detail. The work has not become less or less strenuous – just because it is now performed in the private home. In this context, many companies also pointed out that there is far too little knowledge about how a team and the employees themselves have to organize and structure a home office working day in the best possible way.
Indications of an urgent need for research
From the perspective of automotiveland.nrw e.V., its members and supporters, these survey results not only provide important conclusions for the current discussion on expanding the home office and for the nonsense of prescribing it to companies by law, but also valuable indications of where there is an urgent need for research. The survey results have been published by automotiveland.nrw e.V. as “Statements” on its homepage.
2. Conflicts
Do automotive customers show consideration for the home office situation at suppliers?
The clear majority says, “No.” Exemplary here is this answer: “Absolutely not at all.”
From the different answers, automotiveland.nrw concludes: If the work situation also has a personal relationship with the customer, the customer is more willing to show consideration.
Does working in a home office pose a higher security risk (cyber security) compared to working in an office?
The automotive supply industry in Germany is an industry with a high proportion of research and development and faces tough international competition. It is therefore not surprising that companies are placing a high priority on protecting intellectual property, and not just with the introduction of home offices. Security-critical work either continues to take place in the office, or the computers run over specially secured networks, and employees have to identify themselves several times. Nevertheless, employees alone are aware of the fundamentally higher security risk. Security is also an important issue in e-learning offerings to employees.
Do companies consider the public telecommunications/network infrastructure sufficient for their home office requirements? Where are there bottlenecks?
All of the companies surveyed see serious deficits in the network infrastructure. The companies point out that these deficits call into question the success of the home office. It is the quality of the digital infrastructure that determines whether families can work from home and attend school at the same time. Quality also includes the home-schooling concept, which allows students to participate in class virtually. The two together impact how well or poorly parents can work from home. For the most part, all of the companies surveyed highlighted three aspects:
Most deficits, according to the survey, are in the digital equipment and connectivity of schools, and in the bandwidth or capacity of the public network infrastructure. Even where networks are available and there was no criticism before Corona, the networks are not sufficient to enable families to work from home and home school at the same time.
On several occasions, the companies pointed to the schools’ lack of digital instructional approaches as “severely” hampering home office for parents: The success of home office and digital value chains is hampered by poor homeschooling! Companies clearly and very clearly took a stand on this in our survey. Some companies are equally harsh in their criticism of the digital quality of government agencies in general.
Example: “The inadequate digitization of teaching puts a strain on the workflows of our employees”
Example: “…completely inadequate bandwidths. Catastrophic. This is the biggest showstopper and a real obstacle”.
3. Assessment of the future
If you were asked to expand home office in your company even further, would this be possible immediately, or what conditions would have to be created for this?
The vast majority of suppliers surveyed see no or only limited opportunities to expand home office. Where digital working is possible, the companies have introduced it. In addition, intensification could lead to disruptions in the supply chain.
Nevertheless, a trend to digitize companies has arrived in the reality of company floors. For one company, the future can start right now: “Would be possible immediately. We contractually assure new hires home office in administration and engineering (today already).”
Concrete demands on politicians and legislators in connection with home office?
Just as companies clearly oppose a statutory home office obligation, they call on the relevant authorities and politicians to immediately eliminate the clear deficits in home schooling and in public administration in general.
All of the companies surveyed flatly reject a statutory home office obligation. Some see no need for action on the part of the legislature. Others would only like to see the legal framework adapted, but in the same breath express their concerns about overregulation. In their responses, all companies refer to the mutually agreed home office arrangements that employees and the company have made together. In fact, responses show, both sides of the bargain are aware of what, what needs to be regulated.
About the author
Thomas Aurich is a technology ambassador for automotiveland.nrw and uses his international expertise as a communications and gov.t. relations manager in the automotive and tech industry to promote automotiveland.nrw e.V. Aurich studied economics at the University of Hohenheim. He has been involved in the use of autonomous vehicles on public roads in NRW for many years.