How are Companies Handling Employees’ Desire to Work from Home?

Many business owners considered allowing their employees to work from home like opening Pandora’s box; once opened, there was no going back. Unfortunately, for these administrators, they were faced with the very real prospect of losing their business if they didn’t allow it. Millions of people started working from home in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but now that public fear has diminished, how have companies reacted? Let’s discuss some remote work statistics to get an answer.

Employees’ Side

Before we get into the business side of this issue, let’s briefly take a look from the remote workers’ side. As you would expect, remote workers like being remote workers; even if it's only for part of the time. Some insights include:

• 98 percent of remote workers would work remotely for the rest of their careers.
• 98 percent of remote workers would recommend remote working to others.
• 90 percent of remote workers think they are more productive than they were in an office.
• 66 percent of remote workers think remote work should be an employee’s legal right.
• 29 percent of remote workers believe they should receive a raise if they were asked to return to a traditional work model.

So it’s safe to say that people who work remotely like working remotely. This isn’t a big surprise, but as many people who currently work remotely have done it for a few years now, the percentage of remote workers who consider it essential for a positive work experience is staggering. 

The Business’ Side

Not surprisingly, the fact that many businesses started supporting remote work out of necessity leaves a sour taste in managers’ mouths. After all, we’ve all worked for a manager or two who only rubber stamps things they think are their idea. Being forced into supporting a work strategy that they would have never supported in normalcy will skew their judgment. That’s not to say whether or not it is a fit for their business. Still, with the overwhelming support from employees, it’s hard for business owners to roll back their employees' flexibility and freedom while working from home. 

Let’s take a look at some statistics on how remote working affects businesses:

• 47 percent of businesses still have remote teams working today.
• 78 percent of CEOs see remote collaboration as central to their long-term success.
• 30 percent of business owners see maintaining corporate culture as the biggest concern in using remote teams.
• 71 percent of businesses have taken steps to track employee productivity remotely.
• 61 percent of businesses have increased the amount of online meetings with remote employees.

This shows that, while skeptical of remote work, business owners now understand that a lot of today’s prospective (and current) employees view remote work, whether completely work-from-home, or in a hybrid setup where they come to the office at scheduled times, as the new normal. 

Largest Challenges of Remote Work

Make no mistake about it, there are challenges in business regardless of where your employees work. To finish off this look at remote work statistics, let’s look at some of the biggest challenges that supporting remote work brings to a business and what they can do to overcome them. 

1. Maintaining collaboration and communication - It stands to reason that there would be a gap in communication in a situation where someone is two towns away instead of two desks away. Businesses have begun to really lean on technology to make it possible for remote teams to complete tasks and keep projects on the rails. Collaboration software has packaged everything you need into one platform: Instant messaging, group chats, one-touch communication, file sharing, and application integration to speed collaboration up and to keep work efficient.
2. Maintaining productivity - The main point of contention of many business owners and managers about remote workers is the distractions that workers need to overcome to get their work done efficiently. The best way a business can confront this is to shift the thinking away from the traditional model of hour-based metrics to a more task-based tracking system where productivity is measured through results rather than time.
3. Work/Life balance - Employees have always been frustrated with their ability to balance their work with their home life. Remote work gives them a little more freedom as it eliminates the daily commute and allows them to handle issues they would otherwise have to deal with before or after work. Remote work does more than any other strategy to promote a palatable work/life balance for employees.

Overall, remote work seems to be here to stay, so if your business is looking to maximize its potential with the help of remote workers, you need the technology in place to make it work. To learn how the IT professionals at Directive can help you streamline your process and make it work with distributed teams of employees, give us a call today at 607.433.2200.