Employment and flexibility

Remote working, 3.7 million 'smart workers' expected in Italy by 2025

The Smart Working Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano predicts an increase in remote working in the coming year, driven by large companies

2 November 2024

3' min read

Key points

In 2025, 3.7 million 'smart workers' are expected
New forms of flexibility
The workers' point of view

3' min read

Seven out of ten Italians would contest their company's decision, if it decided to make everyone return to work in the presence of the office, and 27% would even seriously think about changing jobs. But, if they did, they would ask for at least 20 per cent more salary, as well as more flexibility.

In 2025, 3.7 million 'smart workers' are expected

Italians appreciate smart working and do not want to go backwards, as emerges from various studies, including one conducted by the Smart Working Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, which forecasts a 5% growth in remote working by 2025, which would bring the number of 'smart workers' in Italy to 3.7 million, after the figure was 3.55 million in 2024. With some differences between types of companies: on average, people work remotely nine days a month in large companies, seven in the public administration and 6.6 in SMEs.

In large companies, smart working involves almost 2 million workers (1.91 million, +1.6% on 2023), a figure now close to the peak of the pandemic, with 96% of companies having consolidated the practice. So much so that one in three large companies even plan to increase it next year.

Taking a step backwards are, on the contrary, small and medium-sized enterprises, where the number of remote workers has risen to 520 thousand this year, compared to 570 thousand last year, and where only 8 per cent assume an increase in remote work in 2025. By contrast, the situation in micro enterprises remains stable (625 thousand in 2024, 620 thousand in 2023). In the Public Administration, on the other hand, the trend seems destined to reverse: from 515 thousand smart workers in 2023, it has gone down to 500 thousand this year, but 43% of PAs foresee an increase in the number of workers involved in 2024. In Rome also due to the Jubilee.

New forms of flexibility

New forms of flexibility are also coming to the fore. Fewer than one in ten companies have adopted the short week, but the idea is arousing interest, reads the Politecnico di Milano report. An emerging phenomenon is also International Smart Working, which is already possible in 29% of large companies operating in Italy. These are all ways of attracting and retaining talent. The main risk perceived by companies remains, on the other hand, the loss of a sense of belonging and the reduction of engagement (for 57% of large companies), while for 46% the concern is above all data security management.

"Agile working is growing in large companies and falling in SMEs. In small realities, the end of the obligation for fragile workers has brought many workers back to the office, probably because this organisational model is still mainly seen as an occasional work-life balance tool and not as a real innovation in work organisation,' explains Mariano Corso, scientific head of the Smart Working Observatory.

The workers' point of view

An analysis by Hays Italia (an Italian division of the London Stock Exchange-listed company active globally in specialised recruitment), with the contribution of the law firm Daverio&Florio on the subject of Smartworking, confirms the findings of the Polimi Observatory.

For only 14% of workers, according to the Hays study, returning to the office would not have an impact, while three quarters of workers say they would be ready to look for a new job or leave their current one immediately if they were forced to return to the office.

From an economic point of view, moreover, in order to 'accept' the cancellation of agile working, professionals would want on average about 30% more than their current net salary, about 7,000 euros per year. In the event of the elimination or reduction of agile working, 68% of Italians would remain with the company but would start looking for a new job; 7% would leave immediately, even without an alternative.

"The survey clearly shows that smart working is now one of the first elements evaluated by job seekers and companies that decide to return to the classic modality will have to carefully and cautiously manage the transition - explains Alessio Campi, People & Culture Director of Hays Italia -. Especially with regard to current employees, at least in the short term: only a small part would be willing to remain in the current company without working remotely, so much so that, provocatively, almost two-thirds of those surveyed now consider smart working a de facto right".