Are Remote Jobs Here To Stay – As the world grapples with Covid-19 in the famous spring of 2020, most businesses have had to turn to telecommuting in an attempt to survive the impending crisis.
And while countless articles have since appeared claiming employees are becoming remarkably efficient while working from home, some skeptics — including Lazlo Bock, Google’s former head of HR — say telecommuting may not be sustainable in the long term.
Are Remote Jobs Here To Stay
That’s why we decided to put some pressure on it to see how working professionals feel about WFH, physically and mentally, after almost a year, whether they want to return to the office or continue in a remote capacity for good. And if (or when) employees return to a traditional office, what benefits would they like to see as part of the office offering.
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Harnessing the wisdom of the crowd, we asked over 1,000 Americans about their remote work experiences and uncovered some hidden gems.
For most working professionals, the transition to the digital nomad lifestyle is quite sudden. Basically we all muscled in WFH without much time to prepare for jumps. After all, most organizations expect employees to meet their pre-pandemic targets while coping with the stress caused by the disruption.
But – while few were able to keep their heads above water at first, things seem to have changed so far based on our research findings:
One explanation for this may be that most of us are just starting out. Over time, we’ve learned to achieve our common goals without sharing physical space with co-workers, learned to tame our attention-seeking pets who often want to make room for laptop keyboards, and generally kept our productivity levels high. Other factors include,
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Interestingly, for professionals working in the retail, wholesale and distribution sectors, increased sense of security plays a more central role, perhaps due to their daily work, with 59% (vs. 40%) of these workers claiming they are more secure work from home
It should also be noted that the self-employed reported significantly higher satisfaction with telecommuting (92% vs. 81%) compared to other professions surveyed, and particularly in the education sector (65%). Perhaps this is because self-employed Americans made a conscious choice to engage in telecommuting rather than be exposed to it when the pandemic started wreaking havoc around the world.
Like most things in life, remote work has its pros and cons. Below are some of the telecommuting challenges experienced by employees:
As for the challenges, it’s important to note that while communication doesn’t appear to be a problem for most working professionals, it’s definitely a more prominent barrier for large companies employing 500-1000 employees (a 19% increase over the others.)
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At this point, we want to dig deeper and examine the relationship between telecommuting and the workplace and whether telecommuting is a sustainable model.
For starters, we asked professionals currently working remotely due to Covid-19 if their communication with their direct managers had changed. Our respondent said this (had):
Unsurprisingly, most managers take advantage of video conferencing technology that helps them hold one-on-one meetings with live reports from the comfort of their homes and ultimately stay on pulse. That’s why nearly half (46%) of Americans know better what is expected of them when working remotely than when connected to an office.
It also found that 63% of remote workers maintain a sense of belonging to their organization despite working from home, with only 13% disapproving and 24% being neutral. The exceptions are millennial (23%), retail, healthcare and distribution workers (26%) who either disagree or strongly disagree that they feel connected to their employers.
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However – when we asked remote workers how much feedback they were getting now, things started to fall apart:
50% of remote workers strongly agree (35%) or strongly agree (15%) with the following statement: “Now I don’t get as much feedback as I get while working on site.”
Perhaps this is because remote workers are no longer allowed to share physical space with live managers and colleagues who can often see their daily lives. As a result, employees may feel that their contribution is invisible. To combat this, employers need to create an environment rich in recognition and place greater emphasis on regular 1:1 meetings with employees, leveraging peer-to-peer recognition, and offering tangible rewards for great performance (e.g. gift card access to local restaurants , online courses).
Finally, we asked professionals if they believed telecommuting affected their chances of getting a promotion and/or pay raise.
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About 54% of Americans report that telecommuting has not impacted their ability to climb the ladder or get a raise. Another 28% of state telecommuting actually increased their chances of getting a promotion and/or bigger paycheck compared to 18% who said it made them worse off.
It should also be noted that younger workers feel more strongly that their chances of getting a promotion or raise have increased compared to older workers (34% vs. 24%). Additionally, professionals in industries such as business and finance (37%), manufacturing (43%) and IT (35%) also report better career opportunities than other sectors. Perhaps this is because the industry has historically made good use of technology, which now allows them to easily highlight line managers’ contributions.
What we found interesting is that only 13% of Americans who work for utilities with 1,000+ employees said the switch to telecommuting positively affected their career prospects, and 70% of them said it made no difference.
Most of us probably have mixed feelings about telecommuting. While some are looking forward to returning to brick and mortar offices, others are a little hesitant, as one of our respondents said,
Is Remote Work Here To Stay?
Nothing will make me come back. God, I can work in my pajamas, from the comfort of my couch without having to toss and turn, doing things when and how I choose. Even if I only had one day a week at the office to travel, it would cost me $500,000 a year!
That said – 79% of working professionals say their company plans to return to work on site. However, 61% of employees would like their employer to allow them to work remotely even after the pandemic is over. One exception to this includes Americans in the education, retail, wholesale and distribution sectors, of whom only 50% and 51% respectively, intend to continue working from home after the COVID-19 crisis ends.
But if returning to the office is unavoidable, how many days a week do professionals want to be in the office?
At this point, we’d like to roll the dice and ask respondents if they would quit their job if they weren’t allowed to continue working remotely with their current employer—about 29% said yes. This is somewhat consistent with Owl Labs’ 2020 report on the state of telecommuting, which claims that one in two people will not return to a job that does not offer telecommuting post-Covid-19.
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Additionally, 62% of telecommuters also agreed or strongly agreed with the following statement: “In the future, I would prefer companies that offer remote work.”
Interestingly, IT professionals are more likely to start looking for greener pastures if their employer doesn’t let them go after the pandemic pops up in the rearview mirror (35% vs. 29%). That said, this couldn’t be further from the truth for retail, wholesale and distribution workers, with only 7% of them saying they would be willing to change jobs if their company insisted on bringing them back to the office.
Finally, before concluding, we took the time to ask professionals if there was any benefit that would encourage them to return to the office if they were reluctant to do so now. We’ve put over 1,000 responses under the microscope and here are the most common benefits that can help telecommuters get back on track (in no particular order):
Unsurprisingly, money tops the list (by a wide margin) as the driving force behind employees’ desire to return to physical locations. This coincides with ResumeLab’s telecommuting stats which say 61% of telecommuters expect a raise if they are no longer allowed to work from home.
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We surveyed 1,022 respondents online via a special voting tool working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All respondents included in the study passed attention control questions. This study was developed through various phases of research, crowdsourcing and surveys.
The data we present is based on the respondent’s self-report. Everyone who responded to our survey answered every question without research administration or intervention. There are many potential problems with self-reported data such as selective memory, telescoping, attribution or exaggeration.
There are several questions and answers
