Brazilian executives want to stick to remote working

Most senior professionals working from home in Brazil want to continue to operate that way once the Covid-19 outbreak is under control, according to research.

A study carried out with 1566 executives operating remotely by the University of São Paulo's business school (FEA-USP) in partnership with the Foundation Institute of Administration (FIA) has found that 60% of these professionals would like to continue to do their jobs from home, while 19% would like to return to the office and 11% are indifferent.

The professionals surveyed between March and June 2020 are 40 years old on average, have been employed at their current company for about eight years in leadership roles. Some 71% of these workers have stated remote working has increased their productivity, while 76% said the format is compatible with their family routines.

Separate research carried out by FIA, with 139 companies of all sizes across Brazil has found that 46% of Brazilian businesses have adopted remote working during the pandemic. Some 36% of the companies that adopted the home office approach are not planning to stick to it after the pandemic, while 34% plan to offer the option of remote working to up to 25% of their workforce and 29% will offer remote working to 50%, of all staff.

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Of all the companies that have gone remote, 67% struggled with technical aspects, particularly when it comes to staff familiarity with communication tools, cited by 34%, followed by difficulties around remote access to systems (34%) and getting hold of support staff to help with technology issues (28%).

According to the study, the vast majority of Brazilian companies is not subsidizing costs associated to remote working: only 9% are helping with Internet bills, while 7% are paying for telephone costs.

Despite of the difficulties, 50% of the companies operating remotely said they their expectations were exceeded in terms of business performance, while 44% of the firms polled said staff met expected results while working remotely.