State of Remote Work 2021- Trends, Benefits & Predictions

When asked to imagine the future of workspaces, one envisages futuristic automatic conferences or robots serving lunch, but to be honest, it's way less fancier. The workplace of the future is merely people having the flexibility to work from wherever, with teammates from wherever.

So the question “is remote work here to stay” is just straight bizarre to ask, while it converts to be the new normal, more so after encroaching pandemic has hit us all.(Check out 7 reasons why remote work is the hiring trend for start-ups)

How many would actually like to work remotely?

There’s one statistic that remains undeniable each year: remote workers almost unitedly want to continue to work remotely for the rest of their careers. Now, 98% of them is definitely not a small number.

A study done by Biteable on working from home statistics found that overall, employees are less likely to work a full 8 hours from the office (12%) than they are from home (14%).

How many and how often do people actually work remotely?

Around 18% people work remotely full time, with more than 4.3 million people in the USA itself, constituting 3.2% of the entire workforce.

Coming to part time remote workers, a majority of 57% work remotely majority of their time, 27% half of the time and 18% for less than half.

Are they satisfied with remote work?

Approximately 70%  indicated that they were content with the amount of time that they currently work remotely, 19% would like to work remotely more often, and 11% would like to work remotely less often. Check out the chart below to see how many of those are content while working remotely.

Now, the absence of communication sure does lead to feelings of isolation, then what are the benefits of remote work?

How remote employees save time and money

A study done by Global Workplace Analytics found that remote workers can save from $2,000 to $7,000 every year from commuting, purchasing clothing and lunches or from financing in child care.

How remote employees have better health levels and positive work life balance

A study done by Owl Labs also suggested that 86% of respondents believe that working remotely reduces stress levels and improves health.

How about the benefits of the employers?

Now, these are benefits for the employees, what about the companies, you wonder why they should incorporate a remote work model?

Apart from the main benefit of an expansion in the talent pool comes the benefit of saving costs related to the recruitment process too.

How organisations save money

In fact, not just during the initial phases, introducing remote work can drastically reduce business costs of office space like furniture, rent, utilities etc and save up to $10,000 for every remote worker.

All you need is an office desk and chair combo. Or even better a standing desk and leaning chair. This is because their height, design, and structure are meant to keep you comfortable while you work.

How remote work increases productivity

Around 77% of remote employees claim to be more productive when they operate from their homes.

How remote work increases job satisfaction and retention rate

A flexible working environment has a positive impact on employee loyalty, in fact remote workers said they’re likely to stay in their current job for the next 5 years, 13% higher compared to onsite workers.

Why you should consider adopting remote work in your business model

• Global Workplace Analytics stated a total of 4.7 million employees (3.4% of their workforce) availed work from home 3 days a week!
• Since 2016, job posts that mentioned work flexibility on Linkedln shot up by 78%.
• Approximately 57% of the workforce believe that the option to work remotely is their most preferable employment perk.

Growth of Remote Work

• Based on research by usefyi.com, over the next half-decade, about 70% of the workforce will work remotely at least five days in a month.
• Based on research by Buffer, 99% of the workforce admitted to the fact that if they could, they would work remotely for the rest of their careers.

Trends to expect for in the coming years:

1. Rise of “hybrid” in-office and remote based companies

More and more companies are testing remote work in a “hybrid” environment, rather than completely switching to a remote based environment. Around 52% of global employees work remotely once a week, and 68% do so at least once per month.

2. Remote focused tools and resources will continue to grow

To compensate for the decrease in easy communication in virtual environments, collaborative softwares and improvements in cyber-security systems and developments of newer, better protected technologies to support remote working is expected.

Also a rise in services targeted for digital nomads like pre-paid sim cards mobile hotspots with reliable, fast, cheap connections is also expected. Alongside, an already visible trend of more coffee shops and airports providing services to easily work on the go.

3. More Gen-Z employees coming into the market

The generation equipped with the right digital skills needed as a remote worker, shows signs of growth in the remote environment. These digital innates must not be taken lightly, check out why it's important to focus on them.

I have had almost all concerns about entry level, early career employees being remote. Since we did our interview we hired an entry level remote dev and he has helped us crush these automation projects etc. honestly I think the ‘kids’ get it better than the rest of us.” -Dan Leibson from Local SEO Guide

Apart from the fact that remote workers earn salaries 2.2 times more frequently than their counterparts, remote work is here to stay, even post the pandemic. So if you’re hoping to keep up with the latest trends and don’t want to be overruled by others, then its your time to incorporate remote work into your business asap.