4 out of 5 New Zealand businesses offer employees work-style choices

WELLINGTON -- Four out of five businesses across New Zealand offered flexible working hours to their employees last year, most of which were large businesses, according to the statistics department Stats NZ on Monday.

The offer of flexible working hours increases to 90 percent for large businesses with 100 or more employees, Stats NZ said.

More than two out of five businesses offered their employees the option of working from home, and 14 percent of their staff took up this option on a working day, Stats NZ business performance manager Ricky Ho said.

The industry most likely to make this offer was the information media and telecommunications industry, which was followed by financial and insurance services and professional, scientific, and technical services, Ho said.

Within the information media and telecommunications industry, 30 percent of staff worked from home on a typical day in 2023, he said.

Flexible work and support provisions were more likely to be available in the industries of professional, scientific, and technical services, information media and telecommunications, financial and insurance services, and part-time work, he added.

"Larger businesses were more likely to offer health and wellbeing support, and to offer beyond what is required by law for parental leave, redundancy, and illness or injury provisions," Ho said.

The industries that were less likely to offer the option of working from home were accommodation and food services, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and repair and maintenance, among others, he said.

The Stats NZ survey included questions on business operations, innovation, business practices, and climate change. Businesses were surveyed from August to November 2023.