Supporting E-Work Market Development in Rural Areas

Supporting E-Work Market Development in Rural Areas

October 29, 2021

This publication includes the survey findings of the opportunities for teleworking among employees of business companies. It was con­ducted in January-May 2021 through phone interviews and covered over 1,000 large and medium-sized companies in five self-governing cities: Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Rustavi and Poti.

Key findings:

  • The proportion of companies that had never applied for teleworking before the pandemic decreased from 87.6% to 29.6% during the pan­demic.
  • Personnel of business companies teleworked on average 0.7 days per week. This indicator equalled 4.0 days per week for the education sector and 0.2 days for the healthcare sector. Managers teleworked on average 1.8 days per week, high-skil­led personnel – 1.3 days per week, and middle-skilled personnel – 0.2 days per week.
  • In terms of telework participation, groups of managers and professionals repre­sented the top 15 occupations. 
  • Accountancy was regarded as the top teleworking occupation.
  • 37% of the companies positively assess a teleworking mode.
  • 26.3% of companies plan to maintain a remote working model to some extent amid the post-pandemic.

The survey was prepared by the Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG) with assistance from the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the EU Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD).