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Research shows remote workers are generally more productive and stick with their jobs for longer than their office counterparts. Likewise, as much as 3.6% of the entire US workforce is accustomed to telecommuting at least 3 days a week, whereas a further 74% of workers consider remote work to be normal. Taken together these two findings indicate that American businesses listen up and look beyond today to build more progressive workplace policies that will help employees thrive. The report concluded that leaders must rethink their workplace culture to be more inclusive of remote and hybrid work—this is the new normal. This accounts for savings resulting from reduced office space costs, increased productivity levels of employees, reduced absenteeism, and other factors. The American technology company Dell, for example, saves an estimated $12,000,000 per year in real estate costs by creating a flexible work environment for their employees working remotely in the US.
Hybrid work is excellent for a business that needs in-office collaboration and communication. Apart from the 16% who only hire remote workers, some companies use a more blended approach. In this scenario, you’ll find remote workers as well as in-office workers. Remote employees may be more engaged, healthier, and productive employees, but they also struggle with disconnecting. When remote work statistics 2022 you work from your living room or kitchen table, it’s hard to mentally disconnect. Workers need help and support from their employer or they risk sliding into a state of disengagement and withdrawing completely. However, through the first year of the pandemic, worker productivity was higher than expected, leading many businesses to reconsider their approach to remote work.
25% of remote workers struggle with unplugging (Buffer)
Interestingly and quite unexpectedly, research proves that remote work results in increased productivity. 79 percent of the respondents in the same survey prefer to work from home at least once a week versus 84 percent in October 2020.
What percentage of the workforce is remote?
According to stats, 5.2% of the entire US workforce works remotely at least once a week. That’s about 8 million working Americans across different sectors and industries.
A DigitalOcean survey showed that 82% of professionals have experienced some form of burnout while working from home. 52% of employees also stated they often work more hours and struggle to ‘unplug’ when working from home. GitLab also found that flexible scheduling was one of the most attractive elements for employee retention. 50% of respondents in the survey stated that the flexible aspect of remote work drew them in. These industries are leading the transition towards remote working. And they take full advantage of their capacity to support remote workers.
of Businesses Encouraged Their Employees to Work from Home After the Pandemic Was Declared.
Of the nine listed benefits to WFH, “flexible scheduling” is the most popular reason to work remotely. This is the case in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia, all of which received a 50% or larger share of respondent votes. Finally, the remaining 3% of those surveyed responded “I am solo business or freelancer and work remotely”. 75% of people decide to work remotely because there will be fewer distractions. Most people choose to work remotely because of better work-life balance. The highest number of people working from home based on the industry are healthcare (15%), technology (10%), and financial services (9%).
Are remote workers happier?
Yes, remote workers are happier, according to several metrics. 75% of remote workers believe their work-life balance has improved, while 62% of workers feel remote work positively affects their work engagement.Of course, remote work also has its drawbacks. Mainly, 50% of remote workers say they feel lonely at least once per week.
According to the previously mentioned Buffer report, Gen Z is more likely to approve of pay being tied to a specific location. On the other hand, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers are less likely to approve of this. Moreover, in their 2022 survey, Deloitte discovered that 40% of Gen Zs and almost 24% of Millennials would like to leave their jobs within two years.