Over 30% of remote workers here want to start their own business.
That’s a key finding of the South East Remote Working Study Report) by the local authorities and their Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) which surveyed over 900 people in Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford and Tipperary.
Maria Couchman is Economic Development Officer with Carlow’s LEO and she’s been telling KCLR News that the business landscape’s changing, saying “People’s working behaviours have changed dramatically and while we’re expecting some of these behaviours in terms of some increase in terms of people going back to the office I think one in three people of the research said that they don’t plan on returning before the end of the year and that two-thirds of people that do go back they actually expect to be working more of a hybrid model so that’ll be more from a combination of working either an office in the home or a hub in the office”.
She adds that an expanding enterprise offering would be welcomed locally “There’s absolutely room for a good and well researched and well-supported business idea, there’s always room for that within the market place and I suppose that’s where the Local Enterprise Office comes into the fore, we’ve got a huge number of supports for businesses”.
Findings show that one in five people in Carlow are saving over three hours a day by remote working while Kilkenny was proving attractive for remote workers returning from urban cities abroad.
There are 12 hubs locally, six each in Carlow and Kilkenny and there’s an opportunity to look at these areas locally with Ms Couchman saying “So whilst people are working in hubs at the moment, a lot of people are actually working remotely in their home and have an appetite to work in these hubs and what came across very clearly is that some people lack awareness of hubs in their area so there’s certainly an opportunity for the Local Enterprise Office to look at the development of hubs and the support of hubs in the South East region, the other big thing that’s come through from the report is the improvement in terms of commuting”.
For more details from Carlow LEO please see localenterprise.ie/Carlow and Kilkenny LEO see localenterprise.ie/Kilkenny
