The “Grow Remote – Future of Work Pulse” looks at what’s shaping the future of work across Ireland and beyond. We round up the latest stories, share insights, opinions and spotlight where remote and hybrid models are helping people, employers and communities thrive all while not shying away from the challenges of remote!
1) Are changes to hybrid work policies that mandate more office time “a solution to a problem that didn’t exist” – impacted employees say yes.
This summer, AIB announced a new hybrid policy requiring staff to be in the office at least three days per week. The decision triggered widespread backlash among employees, with more than 250 voicing frustration internally, and over 1,500 attending union meetings in protest and plenty of media coverage.
Let’s look at things from the employer’s point of view first. As quoted in The Irish Times “The company said it believes the new arrangements “strike the right balance” between flexibility for staff and “delivering invaluable opportunities and benefits of collaboration and deeper engagement” between colleagues.”
Internal communications reviewed by The Irish Times and The Journal do however highlight a disconnect between employers and employees not just in policy decisions, but also in communications as it was reported how employees criticised what they saw as top down communication, with phrases like “deliberate non-compliance with the new policy will not be accepted” viewed as unnecessarily punitive.
The challenges of transitioning to new ways of working are real!
It’s why we do what we do!
Image from The Irish Times Article:
One staff member described the shift as “a solution to a problem that didn’t exist,” while another called it “disgusting terminology” that undermined trust built over years of effective remote work. Employees also questioned how the new limitations to hybrid working fit with the company’s green ethos 👇
“As part of the Green Agenda, AIB wants to put more cars on the road commuting to their base location, locations already with limited on-site parking.”
The Journal reported that time spent in AIB hubs or branches will not be counted as office attendance. That means employees in rural locations , many of whom made life decisions based on assurances of flexibility , must now commute long distances to base offices, often in Dublin. One employee facing a 520km round trip each week said: “We’re in trouble now”
On top of all the employee feedback, the Financial Services Union (FSU) described the announcement as a major change to their hybrid working policy, regressive and without justification.
However, there are always two sides to every story (maybe even three). A recent Irish Times article published on August 30th “Are workers really enthusiastic about going back to the office?” references a JLL survey which highlights workers’ enthusiasm for office life!
This report says that Irish workers have shown a “decisive preference for the office”, with two-thirds of those surveyed having fixed office days and almost the same percentage feeling positive about return-to-office policies.
The IrishTimes describe it as “notable given the brouhaha we have seen in recent weeks about AIB and Bank of Ireland’s changes to its hybrid working plans but also asks “is a property agent with a clear interest in people going back to the office the right firm to put out a report showing workers want to go back to the office?”
📌 Sources: The Irish Times | The Journal | FSU
Grow Remote Opinion:
Employers are entitled to run their companies as they see fit, or as shareholders demand but a forced RTO can cost companies in the long run and hit them where it hurts.
New research from Mark Ma featured in The Hill, shows that office mandates can in fact push out highly skilled talent, senior leaders, and women at disproportionate rates” and that is definitely not good for business!
Mandating offices or more office time, with limited or no employee consultation and excluding things like hubs as enablers for flexible work is bold. Our recent commentary also outlined the risks: employee engagement, loss of existing talent or challenges attracting new talent and brand damage. Productivity and collaboration outputs don’t necessarily rise in the office either. Culture doesn’t thrive under compliance. And trust, once lost, is really hard (and expensive) to rebuild.
Amidst all of this, it is important that we do not just focus on the decision of one single employer every time it pops up, we must look at the bigger picture. Future ready organisations can now choose to invest in flexibility and making sure that it works for people and profit. Operating models of thriving businesses are evolving. They can be co-designed with staff, responsive to the needs of different roles, and put outcomes rather than location at the centre.
Regardless of whether the operating model is remote, hybrid or office – it is ultimately about how work is done not where the work is done. While not all employers must embrace remote work, there is a real need for a “solutions-orientated approach” where Ireland actively pitches itself to remote-first companies and provides more support to indigenous businesses small, medium and large to help them make remote work!
📌 Bonus: Further Listening
Tracy Keogh, Co-Founder and Chair of Grow Remote on RTE Radio 1:
Tracy Keogh, Co-Founder and Chair of Grow Remote on Newstalk:
2) Ireland is moving ahead of the curve for the availability of flexible jobs but is the real headline that demand outstrips supply by a factor of 2:1 and what should we be doing about it?
According to new research from LinkedIn, Ireland now ranks first in Europe for the availability of remote roles. The data, reported by RTÉ, stated that 9.4% of all job postings in Ireland offer remote options, nearly double the European average of 5.2%. For remote and hybrid roles combined, Ireland is the second highest in the EMEA region, with 36.3% of roles offering some flexibility.
As well as supply, demand remains high, with a reported 2:1 mismatch meaning twice as many applications are submitted for remote roles compared to traditional ones. In simple terms – demand greatly outstrips supply.
In coverage of the topic by Newstalk, guest Peter Cosgrove (Futurewise) gave some excellent commentary and data points (referencing the likes of global workplace thought leader Nick Bloom) when discussing the bigger picture, stressing the importance of structure, leadership, and intentional design, all of which is very much aligned with our own view that remote work is not inherently easier, it just requires different systems and often a different approach to make it work.
In the same coverage CIPD’s Mary Connaughton raised important points in relation to the challenges that remote teams can face with culture and productivity which was guided by their “HR Practices in Ireland 2025” report that was published earlier in the year which stated that “The majority of respondents did not distinguish any difference in productivity levels.”
Bringing this all back to the demand side of things, here are some additional data points that give further context around demand vs supply:
– WDC National Remote Working in Ireland Survey: “92% of respondents indicated that remote / hybrid working would be a key factor in their decision to change employers.”
– CPL Annual Salary Guide 2025: “A vast majority of Irish employees favour hybrid or remote arrangements, with almost seven in ten (66%) availing of hybrid working, and 60% of those would turn down a new position if it didn’t meet their hybrid working needs.”
– 2025 Hays Ireland Working Well Report: Employees defined that flexible work as their #1 wellbeing priority for what they want to see their employer invest in flexible working arrangements.
The demand for remote work in Ireland has never been higher!
📌 Sources: RTÉ | Newstalk (Pat Kenny Show) | CIPD | WDC | CPL
Grow Remote Opinion:
It’s powerful to see Ireland leading Europe in the availability of remote work but our focus should be on meeting demand and maintaining future leadership.
Yes, Ireland is ahead of the curve. LinkedIn’s data shows real momentum and our own monthly tracking of publicly available LinkedIn data suggests even higher figures with around 15% of all roles available being fully remote, and a total of 40% offering some level of flexibility though hybrid or remote.
The small discrepancy in these %’s lies in methodology. The data feeding this new report “was based on LinkedIn’s hiring rate, a measure of hires divided by membership in the country sourced in June 2025. This analysis looks at the changes in hiring rate and the same period the previous year based on members’ profile updates using the start date of a new job.”
Does it need to be so complicated? Why not just filter on remote jobs in Ireland and use the LinkedIn count and if you want to mitigate for “fake remote / hybrid jobs” then take 5% off the total!
Check out our 60 sec video here for how you can find the exact number of remote jobs available in Ireland today and subscribe to our Career Resources Newsletter here. It is the only resource in Ireland dedicated to helping people land a remote job in Ireland.
But, visibility isn’t the same as access. Just because jobs exist doesn’t mean they are equally visible or accessible. The ratio of 2:1 proves it, demand far outstrips supply. And where remote roles do exist, they’re often clustered in certain sectors or geographies. That’s why we need continued investment in visibility, training pathways, and a national target for remote job creation.
Leadership in remote work isn’t about resting on a positive statistic. It’s about building on that momentum in order to unlock the maximum amount of positive social, economic and environmental change that’s available and then managing it.
📌 Further Reading: Grow Remote LinkedIn Tracker | CIPD Ireland Report 2025 | Newstalk Podcast
3) The State of Remote in Ireland: Remote & hybrid work fuels labour market growth in H1 2025 yet there is still a significant opportunity to increase supply from domestic employers.
A recent Journal.ie poll of over 13,000 respondents provides one of the clearest snapshots of Ireland’s working patterns beyond the various headline numbers and % that we have had at a national level from a single source.
Nearly one,third (32%) of respondents work remotely a couple of days a week. Another 16% said they work remotely most of the time, while over 1,500 (12%) reported working fully remotely. Only 30% said they never work from home.
Of particular interest is the 7% who say “I can do my job at home, but my employer wants me in the office.” and how that might play out if we look at CSO data for the Irish workforce.
Taking the latest Labour Force Survey Data for 2025 Q2:
Total Workforce = 2.8 million
Persons who never work from home = 1.7 million
From the poll results lets apply the 7% (who say they can do their job at home) of that 1.7 million = 126K jobs that could potentially be done from home but are not. If just 10% of those jobs were transitioned to remote work Ireland could have 10K+ less people commuting and 2K+ more volunteers in local communities based on Volunteer Ireland data.
Recent data from the Eurofound “Quality of Life in the EU 2024” data from earlier this year had defined that the number could be as high as x3 the above.
Regardless of what end of the spectrum you choose to look at the opportunity Ireland has is significant!
As well as the opportunity for growth we must also take a moment to understand the quiet growth in total #’s or remote and hybrid workers and shine a spotlight on the fact that Remote and Hybrid Work is Driving Jobs Growth in Ireland so far in 2025!
Fresh data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Labour Force Survey 2025 Q2 data shows just how embedded flexible work has become in Ireland’s labour market.
- Since Q4 2024, approximately 42,000 new jobs have been added
- A remarkable 95% of these were either remote or hybrid roles
- Remote and hybrid workers now make up 36% of the workforce, and increase of +1% since the end of 2024
That’s a growth rate over 10 times higher than for traditional office-based roles and a strong indicator that flexibility is a driver of labour force participation rates and growth.
📌 Sources: The Journal.ie | Volunteer Ireland | CSO
Grow Remote Opinion:
The opportunity in front of us is huge but we need to act on it. Employers should stop viewing remote or hybrid as temporary fixes or employee perks. The recent Hay’s Ireland report on Wellbeing shows a positive sign that this is happening! These are structural shifts, and the best businesses are already adapting.
That means:
- Designing roles around outcomes, not locations
- Listening to employee feedback and empowering them
- Making sure flexibility works for people and profit
The opportunity in front of us is huge but we need to act on it. Employers should stop viewing remote or hybrid as temporary fixes or employee perks. These are structural shifts, and the best businesses are already adapting.
That means whether your model is office-first, hybrid or fully remote, the key is intentional design and inclusive access.
Let’s stop focusing only on return-to-office debates and start looking at what the data is clearly showing: remote and hybrid work is working for workers, for employers, and for Ireland’s future.
Our pre-budget submission available here looks at how we can all act to make this happen by 👇
1) Positioning Ireland as a Leader in Remote Work
2) Empowering Employers to Transition and Thrive in Ireland
3) Harnessing the Power of Remote Work for our Local Communities
About Grow Remote – Our mission is to solve the challenges of remote work in order to unlock social, economic and environmental change for individuals, employers and local communities.
www.growremote.ie
