Everything changed in 2020 in the world of remote work, from a niche decision made by some businesses to an inevitable and massive shift in the way people work around the world. As a result of this change, Remote Work's 2021 statistics look very different than the previous year. We’ll also witness new trends and tips that will change the remote work experience.
The Remote Working Experiment with COVID-19:
There is no denying that the world of remote work was impacted by COVID-19, and according to the numbers Buffer found in an attempt to understand the experience of remote workers due to the pandemic, 46% of people who surveyed confirmed doing their jobs from home. And from that category, 47% said their company intended to permanently allow remote work.
In 2020, several major tech companies made headlines for making the transition to remote work a permanent one, including Twitter and Shopify, and they were not alone, as we can see from these data. Just 16% of respondents were certain that their business would not permit remote work indefinitely, while another 38% were still unsure.
For many, the change into remote work was unexpected. There are plenty of stories about all the people in their homes who are increasingly creating space for work. Many kitchens have been changed and anything left in the office can stay there for a while. 82 percent of participants described the move from their company to remote work as smooth.
Even though people started working remotely because of COVID-19, people overwhelmingly tend to continue. The statistics on how they see remote work are increasingly optimistic: 94 percent of people who began working remotely as a result of the pandemic opted to work remotely for the rest of their career, at least some of the time. For persons who were remote employees prior to the virus, the number increases to 99 percent.
Sourcepercent: PwC US Remote Work Survey
Also, it appears like, if anyone has a taste of working remotely, they seem to recommend it: 97 percent told us they will recommend remote work to others.
What to anticipate for 2021: Remote Job Challenges and Improvements.
Now that the discussion on remote work is over, it is time to set new priorities and learn from the 2020 mistakes, here are the anticipated adjustments and trends that will keep rising in 2021:
1.A simple technology:
The digital transformation triggered by the pandemic has driven businesses to use up to 6 messaging applications to carry out their operations.
The incorporation of multiple tools into a common network would therefore be one of the main developments in remote work in 2021, provided that 66 percent of workers say that getting their apps in a single room will allow them to create a smoother workflow, improve their efficiency and minimize the feeling of "technological fatigue" during working hours.
2.Collaborative work is going to be the key:
2021 will be certainly a challenge, mostly tighter budgets, and much more talent. For this purpose, the management of collective work would be more important than ever for supervisors or team leaders.
That is why the careful control of the flows and obligations of the departments, by technical resources, would be crucial to increasing the degree of loyalty of workers to the organization.
In addition to minimizing their workloads, which allow them to take advantage of and relax at home as long as possible, 77 percent perform well when the organization takes seriously the balancing of teamwork and the equal delivery of work.
3.Above everything: comfort, remote office, and furniture.
Our home will definitely continue to be our safest workspace, bringing fresh perspectives into how to carry out our job in pajamas all day long, as 37% of our workers are now doing, according to research from monday.com on the status of remote work.
And while remote-first businesses are considered to have "remote work allowances" allocated for team members to buy furnishings or to make payment for their spacious work, many new teams from remote areas were not equipped to work remotely and did not have a convenient working atmosphere from home, as they did at work. And that would be a noticeable 2021 change.
4.Replace video for fewer voice calls only.
It's tough to be active on a day full of conference calls. In order to accomplish the intended objective, real-time video calls can be disruptive in the schedule of people, draining and at times totally pointless.
Speaking of fewer conference calls: there should be no video for any call!
Although it is understandable that we often miss watching other persons facing the truth, on the one hand, getting video set on every single time can be draining and even distracting, and on the other, not really important to meet the call's contact needs or targets.
In a few emails, community messaging shared over the organization project management system or chat, successful collaboration can be achieved asynchronously through text interaction, attaching some screen recording while describing something particularly complicated without having to rely on several real-time conference calls.
5.Flexible Schedule
Many enterprises that begin to run remotely have proceeded with the same work routine as before, when it is often not really essential.
Despite the less than ideal situation, something that the work at home during covid experience has indeed proven to many companies is that they can trust their team to sustain productivity and quality.
6.A Switch to hybrid companies
Many of the company owners who transitioned to work from home during Covid reported how they keep at least some of their offices with a much more flexible corporate policy that encourages remote working, whether they continue working remotely or become a hybrid company.
Most executives (68 percent) agree that, until the pandemic is no longer a problem, employees should be in the workplace at least three days a week to preserve a distinctive company atmosphere. In addition, 65 percent agree that the office is "very important" for growing employee efficiency, while more than half still consider the office very important for cooperation with staff, creating places to satisfy customers, and enabling the community of the company.
According to employers
According to employees
Source: PwC US Remote Work Survey
7.The development of online recruiting, payroll, and processes systems and resources
Remote recruiting and on-boarding, particularly of young, entry-level workers, as well as legal enforcement and payroll strategies to help globally dispersed team operations, are among the tasks that businesses tend to struggle with while being remote-first or hybrid.
A non-trivial number of new solutions for solving these problems have recently been introduced, such as Deel, Panther, Workable, and many more.
8.The popularization of online schools that teach their students' abilities to excel as remote professionals
When remote jobs become the default way of operating, we see a new offering of online schools focused on training certain abilities to succeed at it to potential professionals.
Microverse is a remote software development program providing students regardless of their position to become remote software developers, with 92 percent of career opportunities being remote after taking the program.
Microverse's preparation not only teaches its students technical knowledge, but also soft skills such as Time Management, Cross-Cultural Collaboration, and Remote Job Best Practices that are essential to be qualified for a working life that is remotely oriented.
In Platzi, a Spanish-speaking online learning school focused on technical courses, something similar occurred, which not only moved to a permanent remote work environment with Covid but also introduced a remote work course to teach the requisite skills in management, networking, and teamwork.
Now, What is the future of current office workers? Are they going to go extinct when businesses consist of 100 percent teleworkers? Are remote jobs here to stay? The short response is that, in the unusual circumstances of 2020, it is not, at least not in the manner the world has come to know it.
The longer explanation, for a multitude of reasons, is - it's not. Most of them include (but are not limited to): Telework is not possible for all industries, work-life balance, the gender gap, distraction, and digital isolation, and employees want hybridity.
The greatest takeaway from 2020 is that remote work has altered its direction and we will begin to see the effects in 2021 and beyond. For the first time, with millions of people experiencing long-term remote work due to COVID-19, we are witnessing an industry that will be impacted forever in the world with modern technologies, methods, and working cultures. certain companies will never go back to work in-person, and the market is indeed bound to continue to evolve and grow over the next few years.