The Experiences and Expectations of 538 Business Professionals
Mind-numbing. Agitating. Expensive.
Ask me to describe my commute a few years back and these would be the only words not rooted in Carlin’s infamous 7.
For me, commuting costs were far greater than just gas and car maintenance … it was time. I simply could never recover those 70+ minutes. Every second stuck on I-476 crawled by like the tire on a work-zone trapped semi, reminding me of the hours that should have been spent with my family, on my job, or (God-forbid) fishing.
Saved time, money, and flexibility are the joists supporting our desire to work from home and when the pandemic subsides employees don’t want to go back to the office. In fact, going forward, 64.5% want to work from home at least 3 days / week.
In February 2021, we surveyed 538 people about their remote work experiences and expectations and uncovered some fascinating data. Here are five of our key findings.
KEY FINDING #1: Working from home makes employees less likely to look for a new job.
44% of employees say working remotely has opened up new job opportunities for them but 60.5% say they are less likely to look for a new job. Only 14% say work from home makes them more likely to look. The bottom line is most employees seem to be happier and that translates into job and company satisfaction.
KEY FINDING #2: Over half of businesses expect employees will work remotely the majority of the time post-pandemic.
In what was a surprise to me, 55% of C-suite executives revealed that they expect their employees will work outside of a corporate office the majority of the time after the pandemic had subsided. This is likely due to two factors, increased productivity for many employees working from home, and cost-savings from decreased leases or sub-leasing.
In a recent article in Forbes, March Betesh, a member of the Forbes Real Estate Counsel noted, “The acceleration of remote work has shifted the office environment, resulting in widespread downsizing and a decreased demand in the market.”
In conversations with our clients, we hear similar stories with organizations changing their technology footprint to service part-time ‘collaboration centers’ vs. full-time cube farms.
KEY FINDING #3: Working from home is making employees more productive – much more so than some business leaders think.
75% of employees say they are more effective workers at home averaging a 31% increase in productivity. 34% of C-Suite executives agree noting their employees are more productive at home while 42% aren’t sure or estimate no change.
KEY FINDING #4: Employees are happy with their work from home technology but believe integration (unifying communications, collaboration, virtual desktops etc.), will make them more productive and secure.
77.5% of employees are happy with their company’s work from home tech choices. However, employees feel they could be more productive and secure if their solutions were integrated.
Nearly 7 in ten employees feel that they would be more productive and 6 in ten believe that their work habits would be more secure if their solutions were integrated.
KEY FINDING #5: Most businesses aren’t planning any major adjustments to salaries or compensation due to work from home.
92.5% of respondents say their businesses aren’t making (or planning) any salary / compensation adjustments for remote workers but 13% of employees say working from home has positively increased their compensation.
That makes total sense to me. Going back to my commute, at least before I started driving an EV, commuting was costly. In fact, according to data analyzed by Business Insider from the U.S Bureau of Economic Analysis, American’s spend anywhere from $2,000 – $5,000 / year driving back and forth to work.
Now, add in going out to lunch a few times per week and buying work clothes that don’t include drawstrings, and you’ve got a recipe for increasing take-home pay.
It’s been a year since COVID-19 shut down the world. Millions of lives have been lost, economies have been decimated, and industries permanently altered. Yet, despite the challenges presented by the virus, most businesses have survived – many have even grown.
What’s kept them going? Employees with the ability to work anywhere, cloud services, and dependable, high-speed connectivity. Each component has been critical to sustaining businesses and providing an accelerated path to financial recovery.
Check out the survey results here and, if your enterprise is looking to integrate your current WFH tech, or simply looking to improve the solutions you put in place last year, feel free to PM me.
