Work From Home Survey

StyleCareers.com recently conducted a survey of over 100 fashion industry employers regarding their Work From Home (WFH) policies. For the sake of comparison, we inquired about the WFH accommodations that were provided at the start of the pandemic, what these accommodations were a year later (now) and what they are expected to be going forward.

We also asked companies to provide information on their Category (Women’s, Men’s, Children’s), their Company Type (public, private, non-profit) and Price Point (discount, budget, mass market, better, bridge, designer, couture) so that we could compare WFH benefits among different market segments.

The first 3 charts deal with the timeliness of the WFH accommodations and the second 10 charts deal with company size, company type and category (women’s, men’s or children’s).

As reference, employers were given the following options:

100% WFH = All work is done from home; represented in green.
Mostly WFH = In the office 1 day or less per week; represented in yellow.
Partly WFH = In the office 2 or more days per week; represented in blue.
No WFH = No Working from home; represented in red.
Unknown = Indicates that the recruiter does not know; represented in aqua.

SURVEY QUESTION #1:

Since the start of the COVID Pandemic, has your organization implemented Work From Home policies?

When the lockdowns started in March of 2020, the fashion industry responded by laying off or furloughing about 76% of its workforce. For those who didn’t lose their jobs, roughly 92% were allowed to work from home for some, most or all of their full time hours…

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SURVEY QUESTION #2:

Roughly a year after the COVID lockdowns started, is your organization offering WFH or Flex Scheduling?

As expected, fashion industry employers reduced their Work From Home hours. Compared to the start of the pandemic, Mostly WFH and 100% WFH dropped from 71% in April 2020 to 48% in April 2021.

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SURVEY QUESTION #3:

Going forward, do you anticipate your organization offering WFH or Flex Scheduling as a standard benefit?

In the near future, fashion industry employers expect Mostly WFH and 100% WFH at only 18% of the companies. For those job seekers expecting to work from home, 82% of potential jobs will NOT be available to them.

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ANTICIPATED WFH BENEFITS BY PRODUCT CATEGORY:

The following charts are based on the GOING FORWARD answers from employers compared to their respective Product Category. Of note, womenswear brands are most likely to offer WFH benefits.

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ANTICIPATED WFH BENEFITS BY PRICE POINT:

The following charts are based on the GOING FORWARD answers from employers compared to their respective Price Points. Of note, the lower price point companies are less likely to offer WFH benefits.

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ANTICIPATED WFH BENEFITS BY COMPANY SIZE:

The following charts are based on the GOING FORWARD answers from employers compared to their respective Company Sizes. Of note, companies that have between 50 and 249 employees are the least likely to offer WFH benefits.

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ANTICIPATED WFH BENEFITS BY COMPANY TYPE:

The following charts are based on the GOING FORWARD answers from employers compared to their respective Company Types. Of note, publicly traded companies plan to offer more WFH benefits than their private counterparts.