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Remote Work Here to Stay

I’m in London! Surprise. My boyfriend is a Brit, and I have come over here to live with him for a while. So, I have transitioned at The Firm to a fully remote part-time marketing specialist. I am the first fully remote employee at The Firm, even after the height of the pandemic. This got me thinking, “What is the continued future of remote workers?” If we at The Firm went all of 2020 without transitioning anyone to a fully remote position, but have decided we can do this, are other employers doing the same thing? Because we now know remote work is effective and possible, will employers now make the move in 2021? Will employers who transitioned all their employees to remote work keep them as such?

 

I did some research.

 

According to Forbes, remote work is here to stay. By 2025, an estimated 70% of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month. And according to a survey from Enterprise Technology Research (ETR), the percentage of workers permanently working from home is expected to double in 2021; the productivity metric is proving that remote work is working. Another huge plus to remote work is the loss of a high capital expenditure: rent. Completely remote companies with no headquarters will continue to form as other organizations decide to reduce their office space or forgo one altogether to save on costs. The pandemic has also proven that employees can work from home and do it effectively—without losing productivity. In a survey by Mercer, 94% of employers said productivity was the same as or higher than before the pandemic, even with their employees working remotely.

 

According to CNBC, 1 in 4 Americans will be working remotely in 2021. By 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels. Also, as employers’ comfortability with remote work rises, they are more likely to tap freelancers to fill talent gaps. Companies like this new model. Upwork chief economist, Adam Ozimek,

said, “Only 5% of respondents of the survey said it was getting worse.”

 

An Upwork study surveyed 1,000 small business owners, HR managers, and CEOs across a wide spectrum of industries nationwide. It was conducted from Oct. 21 to Nov. 7, and according to the survey, 41.8% of Americans were still working remotely. Survey respondents estimated that 26.7% of the workforce would be fully remote by the end of 2021, suggesting that workers will slowly continue to come back to the office. Also, according to the study, managers are thrilled about fewer meetings; 70% of hiring managers say the reduction of non-essential meetings has worked out better for their companies than they expected. 60% say increased schedule flexibility and 54% cite no commute as aspects of remote work that have worked better than expected. Also, 68% of hiring managers say remote work is going more smoothly now compared to the start of the pandemic.

 

This is all to say, remote work is on the continued rise. This might be a great thing for your company to begin thinking or continue to think about as it could greatly reduce expenditures and be attractive to your team and those you will add in the future.

 

To read more, check out these sources:

Forbes: This Is the Future Of Remote Work In 2021

CNBC: “1 in 4 Americans will be working remotely in 2021, Upwork survey reveals”

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