myA large majority of companies in Germany want to maintain the current regulations regarding their headquarters. 84 percent plan to do so, according to a survey published Thursday by the Ifo Institute in Munich among 9,000 companies. “This applies equally to all sectors of the economy, as well as to smaller, medium and large companies,” said Ifo researcher Simon Krause. Only eight percent would like to change their rules. “Despite the public debate about returning to the office, the home office has firmly established itself in the world of work,” Krause added.
Greater flexibility at headquarters is planned mainly in the media industry (23.9 percent) and in the production of goods (19.4 percent). Textile manufacturers (19.6 percent), the pharmaceutical industry (16.3 percent) and IT service providers (16.2 percent) plan the opposite approach, i.e. restrictions.
“Behind the average figures there are big differences”
“We have determined a constant rate of a quarter of all employees working from home since April 2022,” said Ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour. “In view of the new survey results, we do not expect a decrease.” According to this data, 34.1 percent of all companies have currently signed a corporate agreement on the head office. Another 15.4 percent use regulations at the department or team level. 29.1 percent work with individual agreements, while 31.2 percent have no agreement or no central office.
“There are big differences hidden behind the average figures,” Ifo researchers discovered. 49 percent of industrial companies and 32.6 percent of service-providing companies have an employment contract, but only 12.3 percent of retail companies and 17.1 percent of of the construction sector. Team-level regulations and individual agreements are found more or less equally in all economic sectors. Large companies, at 55.3 percent, are significantly more likely to have an employment agreement than small and medium-sized companies, at 23.8 percent.