PARTICIPANTS ARE BEING sought for the latest edition of the national remote working in Ireland survey, which launches today. 

Led by researchers from the Whitaker Institute at NUI Galway and the Western Development Commission, the survey will gather data on people’s attitudes to remote working and working from home over a year into the pandemic. 

It’ll also ask what people’s preferences are post-pandemic – whether they would they like to return to the office, work remotely, or a blend of the two. 

This will be the third survey carried out by the team since the large-scale move to remote working in March 2020. The two surveys commissioned last year received 12,000 responses from employees across the country. 

Previous surveys have shown that as many as 94% of people who are now remote working want it to continue in some form when the pandemic is over. This includes just over half of these workers who want the option of working remotely a few days a week in future, when asked in October.

As well as asking people for their opinion on these matters again, this round of the survey will also ask managers of their experience of leading and supervising their teams remotely.

It will also look at how managers are planning for the post-pandemic world of work. 

The research team expect to publish their findings in early May, and include recommendations for employers on how to manage remote working in the current crisis and into the future. 

The survey is led by Professor Alma McCarthy and Noreen O’Connor at NUI Galway and Tomás Ó Síocháin and Deirdre Frost at the Western Development Commission.  

Ó Siocháin said: “Much has been learned about the transition to remote work over the last year.

“This information helps to inform the decision making about balanced future development in our country, helping the transition to a low carbon economy and ultimately has the potential to transform the way we live and work.”

The survey can be accessed here.