eWork in Europe: how Countries Compare

More results from the EMERGENCE employer survey

In the last EMERGENCE newsletter, we reported on the Europe-wide picture of eWork revealed by our 18-country survey of 7,268 establishments with 50 or more employees. In this issue, we explore the differences between countries.

The diverse histories, cultures and economies of Europe have led to wide differences in organisational practices, evidenced in different characteristic patterns of eWork.

Employees tele-homeworking

Figure 1 shows employers’ use of home-based teleworkers on employee contracts. As can be seen, here the Netherlands is by far the leading practitioner, where one employer in ten has adopted this form of eWork. This reflects a strong tradition of home-based working in Netherlands, combined with an advanced use of IT and a relatively strong social protection system that encourages employee status. The existence of an active Telework Platform in the Netherlands which has actively been promoting this form of work for some years may also have contributed to this situation. Denmark is another country where teleworking has had a high profile in public debates, and where the trade unions have negotiated innovative collective agreements to cover this form of work. Perhaps significantly, this country comes second in the league table for this form of work, with 8 per cent of employers making use of it. In Sweden, Finland, Austria, Belgium and the UK, some 3 to 4 per cent of employers employ fully home-based teleworkers. Elsewhere, in Europe, this is strictly a minority practice.

Figure 1: Use of home-based teleworking employees, by country

Note: Unweighted base: 7,268 establishments with >50 employees Source: EMERGENCE European Survey (IES/NOP)

Digital nomads

In most countries, employers are more likely to use multilocational forms of eWork than purely home-based ones. Here too, we find Scandinavia and the Netherlands in the lead, with nearly three out of ten (29 per cent) of Danish employers using this form of work, 20 per cent each in Sweden and the Netherlands, and 15 per cent in Finland. Poland, Belgium and the UK are also relatively high users of multilocational teleworking.

Figure 2: Use of multilocational teleworking employees, by country

Note: Unweighted base: 7,268 establishments with >50 employees Source: EMERGENCE European Survey (IES/NOP)

eLancers

In other countries, the people working from their homes using ITCs are less likely to be employees and more likely to have freelance status, as can be seen from Figure 3, which shows the different national patterns in the use of eLancers (freelancers using a telecommunications link to deliver electronically processed work).

Figure 3: Use of eLancers by country

Note: Unweighted base: 7,268 establishments with >50 employees Source: EMERGENCE European Survey (IES/NOP)

Countries with a high use of eLancers fall into several categories.

In the Czech Republic and Poland, and to a lesser extent in Hungary (where 24 per cent, 19 per cent and 16 per cent of employers respectively use eLancers) , it seems likely that this is associated with a need to draw on external expertise during the transition of the economies, with employers having to adapt rapidly to changing market conditions.

Figure 4: Outsourcing outside own country

Note: Unweighted base: 7,268 establishments with >50 employees Source: EMERGENCE European Survey (IES/NOP)

In Italy, where nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of employers use eLancers, there is a flourishing small firm sector, well-established patterns of networking and a dynamic informal economy.

In Finland and Sweden (with levels of 23 per cent and 16 per cent respectively) the context is different again: a very advanced technological infrastructure with widespread use of ICTs, combined with rather sparse populations spread over a wide geographical area, encouraging all forms of remote working.

The lowest use of eLancers is to be found in Germany, France, Luxembourg and Ireland. The first three of these countries have rather strongly protected labour markets, where employers are encouraged to extend employee status to their workers. In Ireland, the low level of eLancing may reflect the fact that our survey covered only larger establishments; the smaller firms which characterise much of the Irish economy may well exhibit a different pattern, which we hope to be able to investigate in more depth in future work.

eOutsourcing

eLancers provide one example of the external supply of services, used by 11 per cent of European employers. However, they form only a quarter of all instances of eOutsourcing (acquiring services from external suppliers), which is practised by 43 per cent. Particularly interesting for EMERGENCE is the question of what proportion of this eOutsourcing is carried out across national boundaries. Figure 4 shows a country-level breakdown of eOutsourcing to companies in other countries.

As the figure shows, high cross-border outsourcers tend to fall into two main categories. First, we find the EU Accession States of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. This confirms a picture of rapidly-modernising economies buying in expertise from other, perhaps more developed countries. This effect may be augmented by the fact that a relatively high proportion of the larger establishments in our survey (which was limited to those with over 50 employees) were branches of large foreign-owned multinationals, with an already existing international division of labour.

The other countries with above-average levels of eOutsourcing, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark, are rather highly developed economies, but in relatively small countries which can be expected to trade extensively with their neighbours. The lowest levels are in France and Germany which, along with the UK, form the largest EU economies.

Full report available:
eWork in Europe: Results from the EMERGENCE 18-Country Employer Survey