This week’s edition is all about remote work and the new normal!
Due to technological and societal changes and advances, more and more of our work is being achieved from home. And many many workers are seeing that as a good thing! More and more people are wanting to work from home! Whether that means having your 8am team huddle at your kitchen table in your boxer shorts, or setting up a little office in your garage, generations, both young and old are choosing to work from the comfort of home!
So what does this mean for those of us who employ people to specifically be someone performing a specific task! How should we navigate these trends and the seemingly new desires of our employees as we try to staff, fill holes, and meet quotas?
See some of these eye widening facts about the new normal and the world of work we currently live in!
1. 70% of companies opt for a hybrid working model
Even before the corona pandemic, remote working was on the rise. Research from Global Workplace Analytics shows that telecommuting grew by 216 percent between 2005 and 2019, and with an extra push from Covid, it is now booming. Among knowledge workers, the percentage of telecommuters has even almost doubled.
Recent studies show that the hybrid work model is now the preferred choice among companies. 70 percent of companies consider a combination of telework and office work as the new normal, according to a survey by Mercer.
2. 48% of employees work at least partially from home
Research company Gartner calculated that during the pandemic, nearly half of employees worked full-time in the comfort of their own home. Before the pandemic, 30 percent worked at least occasionally remote, compared to 48 percent today.
3. 16% of companies worldwide work completely remotely
The fact that some companies today don’t have a (head) office at all and opt to work completely remotely, just proves how much the mindset has changed. Today those companies represent just 16 percent, according to Owl Labs, but there is a good chance this number will increase in the coming years.
Freelance platform Upwork estimates that five years from now more than a quarter of all employees will be working completely remotely. That means 40 million employees worldwide working full-time from their own living room.
4. 97% of employees want to work remotely
Telecommuting is thus on the rise, and employers wouldn’t want it any other way. According to a survey by Buffer, 97 percent of employees want to have the option of working remotely at least part of the time. Main reasons, according to Owl Labs, are time savings, stress reduction, more time for family and better productivity.
What this means for you!
With online / remote jobs growing in popularity not just among younger generations, but across the board, companies that hire exclusively for locations and facilities such as factories will need to begin weighing what benefits and incentives they can give to get people out of the home.