They also found that 13% would like to always work from home if given the choice. Remote workers are more productive because they have no commute, less or no office small talk, fewer distractions, more time for family, exercise, a higher quality of life, and better overall work-life balance. The numbers say remote workers are more productive in many cases but not in all situations. 32% of those surveyed by Owl Labs said they would quit their job if they were not able to continue working remotely. Less time spent commuting to and from work allowed more workers to relax and focus on their jobs.

On the other hand, Buffer’s 2022 report disclosed that 52% of people who started working remotely due to COVID-19 felt less connected to their teammates. And, based on the data from the 2022 edition of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence survey, which included answers from 19,010 employees, 54% said they would like to work 4 days a week. According to GitLab, about 82% of workers praised their leadership for understanding how to operate a team remotely in 2021.

Trends in Remote Work: Will We Still Work from Home After the Pandemic?

Remote workers will seek to take advantage of new technologies and applications that allow them to be more efficient with their time outside of the office. There’s no doubt that COVID-19 impacted the world of remote work, so we dug into the numbers to understand the experience of folks who worked remotely due to the pandemic. Some employees will definitely go back to offices, but some might want to keep working remotely.

He shared, “Burnout is a big risk to those who are just working remotely for the first time, and especially to people who are now in more meetings than before. On the other hand, the biggest struggle to remote work changed quite drastically. In past years, collaboration and communication difficulties, as well as loneliness, were top of the list. This year, 27 percent of remote workers selected not being able to unplug as their biggest struggle with remote work (see chart #4), followed by difficulties with collaboration (16 percent), and loneliness (16 percent). Despite nearly half of the respondents being pushed to work from home in 2020, the responses to our first two questions stayed nearly the same as in previous years when that wasn’t the case.

COVID-19 & Work From Home Stats: Is Remote Work Here to Stay?

On the whole, remote workers are less stressed (57%), have improved morale (54%), take fewer sick days (50%), and most importantly, report having a better work-life balance (75%). With all that in mind, it’s no surprise that 68% of Americans would prefer to be fully remote. Similarly, 74 percent of all respondents shared that people on their immediate team are in multiple time zones (see chart #18).

The 2023 Workplace Experience Trends & Insights report from Appspace suggests companies have a long way to go in removing information silos. The talent shortage is https://remotemode.net/blog/breaking-down-2021-2022-remote-work-statistics/ another major issue in the business world that needs to be addressed. Judging from the above data, AI will surely become a staple in both on-site and remote work.

Statistics showing the most common remote work structure

On the
flipside, more remote employees are nervous about
career progression than they were in 2019. Managers —
read on to learn how you can support remote employees
by having intentional, scheduled career conversations. Owl Labs in collaboration with Global Workplace Analytics (GWA) surveyed 2,025 full-time workers in the United
States between the ages 21 to 65 at companies with 10 or more employees. The gray line assumes that the share of employees working remotely grows by the pre-COVID rate of 0.16% annually going forward.

• The data from Owl Labs for 2022 also shows that the inclination of women to work from home is much higher than that of men.
• In Australia, more than half of knowledge workers (55%) work remotely to some extent, while 45% are back in the office full-time.
• Their professional and personal life boundaries have been blurred, posing a threat to team and individual productivity.
• No matter her productivity, her colleagues seemed to care primarily about the chitchat — what’d you do last weekend, where’d you get that purse?
• Unfortunately, 44% of respondents said that their company doesn’t provide career growth opportunities — but employees say they wish this were the case.
• This is why almost half of those employees would like to continue working from home even after the pandemic.
• However, 2021 turned out more unstable than imagined, shaped by a massive war for talent, high inflation levels, and high resignation rates.
• Also, it’s encouraging to know that no one said that remote work was or is a negative experience for them.

Some 36% say it’s about the same, and 4% say they are more connected to their co-workers. A smaller but growing share of workers (17%) say relocation to an area away from their workplace, either permanently or temporarily, is a major reason why they are working from home. An additional 8% say this is a minor reason they are working from home, and 75% say this is not a reason. A plurality (44%) of all employed adults who are currently working from home all or most of the time say this is because they are choosing not to go into their workplace.

Challenge #8: Fewer opportunities for career advancement and growth

In an Achievers Workforce Institute survey of 952 HR leaders and more than 2,000 employees, data showed that in 2021 most employers operated under the hybrid work model — 60% of them. According to Microsoft’s annual report and based on LinkedIn’s data, the number of remote work jobs offered is also on the rise. According to this data, businesses in the US and UK are much more inclined to allow their employees to work 100% remotely and in their own time than those in South Africa, Brazil, and South Korea. A recent survey from Microstartups shows the Netherlands as the country with the highest percentage of remote workers at 13.7%.

What’s more, the predictions from the 2021 World Economic Forum report reveal that about 40% of the global workforce will need reskilling for up to six months by 2024. Upskilling employees is another top priority for employers — especially considering the talent shortage. Although remote work is a long-known work arrangement, people used to believe it was only for those working part-time or that it wasn’t an effective way to work.

Owl Labs Tip:

Some work remotely 5 days a week and meet their teammates only on special occasions — like team-building activities or other corporate events. Then, they compared the countries based on their remote working conditions and the opportunities they offer for exploring outside the usual 9–5 routine. In their Work from Wherever Guide, Kayak has listed the 100 best countries for remote workers. Interestingly, the public administration sector was more likely to offer hybrid work — at 41% — and flexible hours — at 32%. This is slightly lower than the percentage of the legal sector offering hybrid work (49%) and a bit higher than the healthcare sector (40%). In its Workplace Confidence Survey, LinkedIn found that US companies operating in the tech sector in 2021 were the most likely to offer full-time remote work — at 48% — and hybrid work — at 51%.