What is the future of remote work?

When Covid-19 caused countries across the world to institute 'lockdowns,' hundreds of millions of office workers suddenly found themselves working entirely remotely.

Back in 2019, 1 in 4 of the professionals surveyed said remote working wasn't permitted by their company in any circumstances – a figure which peaked at 50 per cent among workers in Japan.

Almost overnight, this situation changed drastically; reflected by the vast increases in remote working (and working at home specifically). According to Gartner Research 48 per cent of employees will work remotely at least partially post Covid-19 (compared to only 30 per cent before the pandemic)

Working from home holds global appeal

Home working is up 40 points in France, the US and the UK. It's climbed by nearly 50 points in Spain and Singapore, while having risen by close to 60 percentage points in Brazil.

Numerous other location types have seen notable increases, from professionals opting to work in shared offices and coffee shops.

This has prompted one obvious question: what will happen once the threat of coronavirus eventually recedes. Will office life return to pre-pandemic normality? Or, will companies need to embrace a future in which remote working is a much more mainstream proposition?

In some countries, it's been reported that various corporations are planning to down-size or relocate offices. While this has been more prominent in some places than others, there's a clear sense of enthusiasm among professionals who work for more progressively-oriented organizations such as these.

Strikingly, 3 in 4 B2B professionals across 18 diverse countries expressed at least some interest in permanent home working. In no country did this level of interest fall below 60 per cent.

Of course, expressed sentiment won't always convert to reality. Some companies simply won't permit it, and it's possible that a sense of fatigue over home working could eventually lead some of these workers to long for a more varied routine that includes a mix of home and office locations.

Even so, with levels of interest in, and support for home working having grown this much, it's a topic companies are going to have to address.

A Pew Research Center survey found that 54 per cent of US employees would prefer to continue teleworking after the pandemic is over. And according to a Gallup report, 6 in 10 managers will allow their employees to work remotely more frequently than they did before lockdowns began.

Pre-pandemic frequency of home working

Future location plays a part too: A third of those looking for a permanent work-from-home solution say the pandemic has caused them to reconsider where they live and consider moving to a different area.

The number one reason for this is wanting a change in lifestyle, closely followed by changed priorities – such as wanting to live somewhere quieter, and wanting more space.

These individuals over-index on all of these criteria, whereas they under-index for things like wanting to be nearer to family or wanting to take advantage of current financial assistance available for home buyers from the government. Clearly, it's about wanting to change their living situation for the better.

Top of the list for all groups is not having to commute (especially important in the UK), followed by having a more relaxed environment and being able to eat more meals at home. In these areas, we don't see much variation between professionals who are able to work from home, and those who are interested in doing so on a permanent basis.

According to Harvard Business School research, nearly half of senior corporate executives expect their usage of digital talent platforms to increase substantially in the future.

Also, almost 90 per cent of business leaders consider remote talent platforms important to their organization's future competitive advantage.

Elsewhere, there are meaningful differences between the two audiences which give us a sense of what drives people to want to work remotely as a permanent solution.

Individuals interested in doing this are considerably more likely to say it allows them to better manage their time, that it gives them more opportunity to complete jobs around the house, that it leads to fewer distractions, and – above all else – that it's better for productivity.

Those professionals who would like to work from home permanently think it's more efficient for them, and therefore more efficient for their company.

In addition, they're at least 10 points less likely to cite maintaining focus throughout the day as a challenge, or to say that not having social interactions with colleagues would be an issue.