Europe is divided over new work — but not the way you think

By surveying 5,278 employees and 3,654 decision makers at European companies about the future of work, the Handelsblatt Research Institute has revealed a surprising rift. The results show that individual countries within Europe have starkly contrasting views on the tech and trends that will shape employment in years to come. [By Matt Bulow]

The Handelsblatt Research Institute surveyed both employees and managers across 10 countries to find out what they think about technology and the future of the workplace. Surprisingly, some of the most powerful economies in Europe are not among those that embrace technology at work the most.

Find out more about people’s opinions and assumptions regarding digital communication platforms, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, cybersecurity, autonomous robots, and more in this breakdown of the report’s major findings.

Which Technologies Do People Think Will Make a Difference?

Over two-thirds of employees across all countries feel that cybersecurity will shape their work in the future. Digital platforms as well as digital communication and collaboration software followed closely at 63 percent and 60 percent, respectively. Workers assign less relevance to the following technologies:

• Autonomous vehicles
• Additive manufacturing
• Robots
• Augmented, mixed, and virtual reality

Unsurprisingly, more office employees see technology as having relevance to their future work than non-office workers do.

The Status Quo According to the Decision Makers

When asked about the current situation, corporate decision makers reported exceptional progress with the following technologies:

• Cybersecurity
• Digital platforms
• Digital communications
• Collaboration software
• Cloud computing

Many of these businesses, however, do not plan to deploy autonomous vehicles, autonomous robots, or additive manufacturing anytime soon. The companies already using future tech are mostly large organizations, signaling that adoption likely depends on sufficient financial resources. Smaller businesses, in contrast, frequently reject new technologies such as blockchain.

How Workers Think Technology Will Affect Their Jobs

The study demonstrated that employees across Europe are very open to new technologies that may prove useful in their own professions. Yet, a majority also claim new technologies will not have a noticeable effect on their jobs. That’s because they believe it’s not possible to automate the work they do. This applies more to non-office workers (56 percent) than office workers (48 percent). Employees in the UK and Germany are particularly convinced of this. Industrial workers are more inclined to recognize that technology could affect their employment situations, but many still do not think this will happen.

This contrasts with the views of their managers, who are more likely to recognize the potential of technology to handle jobs humans hold today.

How Managers Think Technology Will Change the Workplace

Most managers expect their staff to be freed from time-consuming routine tasks, so they can concentrate on other things (68 percent) or dangerous work (65 percent). Managers are also far more aware of the possibility of job losses due to digitization than workers are. Almost half expect new technology to take over most tasks that are currently being performed by humans.

Zooming out to the business case, decision-makers widely agree on the following four major benefits of digital technology.

• Improved quality of products or services
• Cost savings
• Processes are less error-prone
• Increased customer satisfaction

While attitudes among employees range widely regarding remote work, a 37 percent majority of those who support it would prefer two or three days a week remote. This preference is particularly distinct among workers in Spain and the United Kingdom. The proportion of respondents who prefer this option is 41 percent in each of these countries.

The second-strongest preference (22 percent) is for occasionally working outside company premises. And only 17 percent of workers would prefer to no longer work on-site at all in future. Again, this preference is particularly distinct among workers in the United Kingdom (29 percent) and Spain (25 percent).

Only 15 percent of European employees would welcome a complete return to the office after the coronavirus pandemic. Workers in Denmark (19 percent) and Germany and Italy (18 percent each) would most readily do so. Only a small minority (4 percent) of the surveyed workers fully reject remote working.

Lockdowns required businesses to implement remote work as quickly as possible. Besides the ad-hoc solutions necessary in the beginning, investments are now being made to facilitate remote working. Companies are most actively investing in furnishings for home offices, IT equipment, IT infrastructure, software, and IT security.

The Pros and Cons of Remote Work

Of the many benefits associated with remote work, employees, and employers (perhaps predictably) emphasize different aspects.

For employees, the following items represent the biggest advantages:

• Time saved from not having to commute
• No travel costs
• More flexibility with time
• Smaller environmental impact because of the reduction in commuting
• Better work-life balance

Decision-makers reported these main benefits:

• Lower overheads (e.g. office space, energy, materials, travel expenses)
• Smaller environmental impact due to the reduction in commuting
• Family-friendly image due to the improved work-life balance
• Higher employee satisfaction and loyalty
• Fewer sick days

Here as well, there is common ground between managers and those they supervise: both groups most commonly cited the lack of daily social contact as the major disadvantage of remote working.

A few employers still feel employees get less done when they work from home. The pandemic, however, appears to have proven this prejudice incorrect for most, since most work was performed just as well during lockdowns.

Conclusions: Are Workers Fully Aware of the Implications of Digitization?

The Handelsblatt report draws some conclusions that, if correct, would have considerable significance for the future of work and the global economy.

On the one hand, the survey results suggest that corporate decision makers believe new technologies will have a large effect on existing occupational profiles. Yet, a majority of workers in Europe do not expect technology to change their daily working lives. This may be because many employees are not yet fully aware of the implications. Both workers and executives are more conscious of technologies which have already achieved widespread market penetration.

The higher levels of the corporate hierarchy are more active in fostering digitization, making a top-down change process more likely. If digitization is to succeed, however, workers must also be brought on board — this will be even more crucial considering the current gap in awareness.

The source of regional differences across Europe regarding the acceptance of advanced technologies, although perhaps surprising, is an interesting aspect of the study which may warrant further investigation. Are more developed economies less optimistic about the role technology will play, simply because they have been exposed to more of it in their daily lives and are therefore more acclimated to it? Or do these results reflect a more conservative attitude? Download the entire report below, so you can pour over all the charts and data and draw your own conclusions.