The COVID-19 pandemic led millions of employers worldwide to shut down their offices and implement remote work to maintain business operations.
This resulted in the rise of remote work during this period.
Demand and adoption of remote work is on the rise
Post-pandemic, remote work has proved to be a viable and popular working model among businesses and employees. Moneyzine.com reported that 16 percent of all businesses worldwide now work entirely remotely, with four times as many job openings emphasizing remote work compared to pre-pandemic. Remote roles are widely embraced, but 44 percent of companies are still not allowing their employees to work from home.
However, small businesses are twice as likely to offer remote roles, with the technology industry comprising 15 percent of total remote roles, followed by health and pharmaceuticals industry (13%) and finance (10%). Women favour remote work more than their male counterparts, with 46 percent of women citing their preference for this type of work compared to 39 percent of men.
Remote work outweighs other work perks
Employees around the world are increasingly seeking job opportunities that offer remote working. They are willing to take on a 14 percent pay cut, and 69 percent of millennials would give up work benefits if they were offered a job where they could work from home. The benefits of remote work could offset any pay cuts, with remote workers saving $2,000 to $7,000 annually on transportation and other work-related costs. This benefit extends to the environment, with a significant cut in greenhouse emissions due to the reduction of 600,000 cars used for work transportation.
Importance of employers doing their due diligence on the benefits of a flexible working model
Although 95 percent of company executives believe that employees must be present at the office to maintain a strong company culture, 29 percent accept hybrid models, with just 3 days a week in-office being satisfactory. Employers should actively educate themselves on this growing work model as it could save them more than $11,000 for each employee they allow to work from home for just half of their contracted hours.
In addition to the financial advantages, businesses can enjoy increased productivity of their employees, with remote workers being 7 percent more productive than their in-office counterparts, attributed to fewer distractions reported by 75 percent of work-from-home employees. However, just 12 percent of business leaders have full confidence that their remote workers are being productive. Despite this, demand for the flexible working environment is on the rise, and employers should highly consider flexible arrangements for retention.
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
