Four out of five businesses across New Zealand (81%) offered flexible working hours to their employees in 2023, according to data released by Statistics New Zealand.

The research found that the offer of flexible working hours increases to 90% for large businesses (those with 100 or more employees).

In terms of industry, the option of flexible working hours was more likely to be available in the following industries: professional, scientific, and technical services (95%), information media and telecommunications (94%), financial and insurance services (92%).

Part-time work (77%) was the second-most popular offer relating to flexible work and support provisions. Support for mental health and wellbeing stood at 53%.

“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,” business performance manager Ricky Ho said. “More than 2 out of 5 businesses offered their employees the option of working from home, and 14 percent of their staff took up this option on a working day.”

The industry most likely to make this offer was the information media and telecommunications industry (86%). This was followed by financial and insurance services (84%) and professional, scientific, and technical services (81%).

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

Meanwhile, the industries that were less likely to offer the option of working from home were accommodation and food services (10%), agriculture, forestry, and fishing (16%), other services, e.g., repair and maintenance (25%).