Eight percent of German companies offer employees the opportunity to work from their holiday destinations, concludes a survey of personnel managers carried out in cooperation with the Ifo economic research institute, published on Thursday.
“In the competition to recruit and retain skilled workers, this could be one possibility to give them a better work-life balance,” said Julia Freuding, speaking on behalf of the Munich-based institute.
In the service sector the value is even 10%, in industry 8% and in commerce 2%. However, only 3.3% of the workforce of the companies that offer this possibility make use of it.
“This way of working is not viable in all professions, but it will become important where teleworking is normalized,” Freuding said.
The companies of the managers surveyed offer an average of 29 working days of vacation to their employees and more than half grant a special vacation allowance.
In addition, 59% of companies grant additional paid leave so that employees can carry out training activities.
In most of the German Länder (federal states), with the exception of Bavaria and Saxony, the entitlement to additional vacation is fixed by law. On average, there are 6 business days per year.
The training activities do not have to be directly related to the worker’s work activity.
However, this possibility is only used by 3.5% of the workers who have the right. The possibility of a sabbatical leave, that is, an unpaid leave that can last up to a year, is only offered by 41% of the companies.
Source: TSF
