- In addition to the 17% of regular teleworkers in the French workforce, 24% of first-time teleworkers during confinement, said Ademe in a study published on Thursday.
- They weren't always thrilled with the experience, but 76% said they now want to telecommute at least once a month. See more.
- If this is indeed the case, Ademe estimates that the reduction in trips to France could be around 2.4%, or 3.3 million trips avoided per week, for a gain of around 3,200 tonnes of CO2 per week.
A calmer working environment, no time spent in transport, more flexible hours ... Did the French allow themselves to be convinced by telework during this unprecedented period of confinement, where it imposed itself on a good number of between them, suddenly and for almost two months?
This is the question posed by the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) in a study conducted from April 30 to March 13, and the results of which were presented on Thursday.
Containment has brought new profiles to telework
In all, 4,000 self-administered questionnaires were sent to active French people, and Ademe collected 3,990 responses. First lesson: "41% of working people were involved in teleworking during confinement," notes Jérémie Almosni, head of the "transport and mobility" department at Ademe. In addition to the 17% of regular teleworkers in the French workforce, 24% of first-time teleworkers were added. "
Jérémie Almosni already recalls the typical profile of the usual teleworker. "Executives and intellectual professions are overrepresented there, as are residents of dense urban areas," he describes. Couples with children are also found more often, ”he lists.
Containment has brought new asset profiles to telework. It's already a gender issue. “54% of first-time teleworkers are women, against only 42% of regular teleworkers, says Jérémie Almosni. Half also are intermediate and employed professions, whereas these professional categories were hitherto little concerned with teleworking. Respondents cited in particular as a brake until then the lack of confidence on the part of their employers. "
Finally, with regard to geographic distribution, first-time teleworkers are located mainly in medium-sized urban areas. Rural areas, on the other hand, are still underrepresented.
76% of first-time teleworkers say they are ready to continue the experience
So much for the profiles. The next question is whether everyone enjoyed working from home. The answer is generally "yes", emphasizes Ademe. "The usual teleworkers are 71% to declare not only want to continue the process, but also to reinforce the quotas of teleworked days," says Jérémie Almosni. Among the reasons given, they cite stress reduction first, but also productivity gains. "
The level of overall satisfaction is more mixed among first-time teleworkers, since 50% mention professional relationships and ergonomics of the workplace degraded compared to what they know in their companies. “All the same, 40% cite advantages to teleworking, tempers Jérémie Almosni. The argument that comes first is that of work-family balance. These first-time teleworkers cite in particular the time saved on home-work journeys. "
In the end, 76% of first-time teleworkers say they now want to work outside their company's offices at least once a month. "56% would even be ready to do it one day a week, and 33% even more," adds Jérémie Almosni.
Decrease in trips and kilometers traveled
Ademe then looked for the impact that this desire to telework could have on everyday mobility and, by extension, on greenhouse gas emissions. To do so, the study probed the travel habits of those who teleworked already before confinement. She concluded that teleworking drastically reduces travel. "We go from 6 daily trips a day of work to 1.8 a day of telecommuting," explains Jérémie Almosni. The distances traveled follow the same curve. We go from 9 km a working day to 5.5 km, a teleworking day.
It remains to project into the future. Be careful, hang in there. "Since among the 24% of new teleworkers, 76% say they want to continue teleworking at least once a month, we immediately identify 18% of new workers saying they want to continue teleworking, begins the head of the" transport and mobility "department. of the Ademe. We have observed a reduction of around four trips per week for them when it includes a teleworked day, which corresponds to around fifty kilometers less traveled. "
Ademe then averaged the responses of first-time teleworkers on the frequency with which they wished to telework in the future. Among those who responded at least once a month, once a week or more. "This gives an average of 1.15 teleworked days per week," says Jérôme Almosni. Starting on this basis, Ademe estimates that the reduction in trips to France would be around 2.4%, or 3.3 million trips avoided per week.
The agency then correlated this drop in trips with data from the 2008 national survey on home-work trips, according to which 56% of working people are responsible for these trips and two-thirds of these are by car. .
Total estimated gain from the operation: 3,200 tonnes of CO2 per week. "That is to say a drop of 1.3% in annual greenhouse gas emissions caused by the car", Jérémie Almosni figure.
Potential negative rebound effects
The drop in CO2 emissions could even be greater "knowing that first-time teleworkers are mainly autosolistes", continues Jérémie Almosni. 60% said they went to work by car, more than the percentage taken into account by Ademe in its calculation.
But the drop could also be smaller than expected. Jérémie Almosni does not rule out, in any case, potential negative effects accompanying the progression of telework in France. "Half of the new-to-teleworkers surveyed said they expressed the wish and were able to move away from their workplace to improve living comfort," he illustrates. Often, then, the idea is to flee the big cities for the moderately dense urban areas, even the rural areas. Where the public transport offer is less provided and the inhabitants more motorized. The risk, then, is certainly to win teleworkers ... but who move more often than before by car.
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