A new study from a New Zealand recruitment firm, Cultivate, reveals that Kiwi workers value their flexible working arrangements and if reduced, would consider quitting their job.

After surveying more than 1000 Kiwi office workers, Cultivate found that working from home arrangements are crucial for retaining and attracting staff.

Around 45% of those surveyed say that they would reconsider their future with their organisation if working from home arrangements was reduced or stripped.

Cultivate’s data reveals that flexible working options are important with 38% of respondents saying the benefit is a “deal breaker” when choosing a new role. An additional 47% say it is a preference.

Offering work from home entitlement makes roles more attractive to staff, says Cultivate Co-founder Tony Pownall.

“The majority of jobseekers Cultivate engage with will have rebuilt their lives around hybrid working, and it has become challenging to source talent for roles without offering at least one day of working from home per week,” says Pownall.

“The results clearly demonstrate that organisations need to embrace the notion that work is no longer defined as the place you go, but rather what you do. The concept that workers are most productive when in the same room is a hangover from the industrial revolution and doesn’t fit our increasingly knowledge-based economy.”

Read more: Love it or loathe it? The new way of working is hybrid

More data reveals that only 7.5% of respondents are fully remote and 29% working from home two days a week.

Fifteen percent say they are working one day or three days from home.

Around 65% of workers say they would work between one to three days from home if given the choice and 12% say they would work fully remote.

Working from home is utilised to save workers from commuting (30%) and being more productive at home (27%).

“Many people we talk to say they are more productive at home than in the office where they can save the time commuting as well as the office distractions of meetings, interruptions, and background noise. So the idea that workers need to commute to the office to be most productive is simply not the case,” says Cultivate Co-Founder Trina Jones.

“Businesses need to embrace hybrid working, not as a temporary measure but as a permanent fixture of the modern work environment, to remain competitive in the talent market. COVID only accelerated a trend that we saw happening anyway. We know that happy team members are productive team members so giving staff WFH allowances is a win-win for both employers and employees.”

Already, 72% of organisations offer work from home entitlement, with the utilities industry at the top with 87.5%.