Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people experienced enormous difficulties earning their livelihoods, and most of these people lost their employment and businesses. Without a doubt, the pandemic resulted in significant losses for both individuals and organizations, but it also enhanced the trend of remote working, which created new job opportunities. Even if remote employment was already in practice before the pandemic, it began to take off after that. Remote work served as a survivor for many organizations, and they were saved from bankruptcy thanks to it, which allowed them to employ workers from home without their need to go to the office daily. Remote work statistics on employee satisfaction have shown that employees were saved from the brink of losing their jobs by giving them opportunities to work from home. Tools and software for remote work have enabled employees to do things that were previously impossible for office workers, in addition to working from homes, such as having some control over their schedule and flexible working hours. The ability to set their own working hours changed the way the company operated. Employers were also able to save money on office space expenses due to remote employment. Based on some remote work statistics collected through research and surveys, following are some facts that will aid in understanding its role in changing enterprises landscapes.
Numerous surveys and studies conducted on remote work have shown that almost 97 percent of employees desire to operate remotely. They wish not to go to offices daily and to have some days in a week in which they can work from home. After the pandemic, the hybrid work trend has become more popular among employees because it allows them effective face-to-face communication when required and the flexibility of flexible remote working for most of their time. About 32% of remote employees value their autonomy in scheduling, which has aided them in maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and 25% of them are content with the perk of working from any location. The Great Recession was in part spurred by this need for freedom, as many people shifted to remote work. Because of fewer interruptions and greater liberty in setting up a work schedule, some remote employees have also seen an increase in productivity.
Although the employment rate in remote work is directly proportional to the number of industries and job types, its feasibility still mostly depends on how easily these jobs can be accessed by all remote employees. This is because remote workers require a high-speed internet connection, office management tools, video conferencing and communication applications, and a comfortable workspace to operate remotely from the convenience of their homes. The majority of employers who value remote work provide the necessary tools to their remote workers, but some of them demand that the employees have laptops, scanners, video conferencing tools, and memberships to remote support software. Most of the employees who participated in surveys regarding remote work expressed a desire for remote employment, but whether it is financially feasible depends heavily on both individuals and businesses.
According to more than fifty percent of technical experts, remote work is more susceptible to security risks than a regular physical office space. One such concern is the greater risks of hacking online data from numerous private and public sites as well as various devices. The companies that offer remote assistance software to businesses are mostly responsible for resolving this issue, which in turn gives training to their remote workers on how to be aware of potential threats to data leakage and safeguard their equipment and data from hackers. Despite this, a lot of experts have also agreed to the improvement of security throughout the technical devices used by remote workers thanks to this concern. It is a good thing that companies are investing more money in resolving security issues, as this concern of upholding security standards is required by both remote support software and those present in regular offices.
Almost seventy percent of professional and talented employees prefer those companies that offer the option of remote work. Talented workers’ hiring is one of the cornerstones of a prosperous business, but after hiring comes the most difficult part of retaining this talent pool. Because working from home is so convenient, competent workers are drawn to strong employer brands that offer the option of remote work because it is what they choose to do when searching for new employment or switching between different occupations. It is also proved from the various polls conducted in this regard that choosing remote work is a better way of drawing and retaining global talent. This is because it has freed the employees from working within the boundaries of their area or country by allowing them to showcase their abilities in multinational companies. Hence, companies are now adding the option of remote work when posting job advertisements and during interviews to attract and keep skilled experts around the world.
In summary, it is evident from the above-mentioned facts that the transition to remote work is appealing to both employees and employers as a result of increased flexibility and productivity. Although not all firms were successful in implementing the new trend of remote work, the difficulties encountered by both individuals and employers have demonstrated that the working community and workforce are more flexible than we initially thought. While the majority of employees support remote work, some businesses prefer hybrid work solutions that give their employees the choice of working both in-person and remotely, while others are still not ready to embrace this type of employment. Thus, the hybrid work strategy strikes a good compromise between the two work models by accommodating varied workforces to cooperate across various channels and harmonizing the various needs throughout businesses.
