I managed to go last week without talking about returning to work. This means, of course, there’s eye-catching research to start the week off.
Information worker productivity isn’t negatively impacted by remote working. Quoting ZDNet, researchers at Texas A&M University School of Public Health conducted the study before the pandemic made remote work the norm from March 2020. They looked at 265 employees from a Houston-based oil and gas company during Hurricane Harvey, which required these employees to work remotely for a month back in August 2017 due to floods.
The research – which looked at data about employee technology use before, during, and after the disaster – found that employee and company resiliency “may be enhanced” through remote work during natural disasters and other events that cause workplace displacement.
Despite all the talk, workers aren’t rushing back — According to an analysis of data by workspace booking platform Robin, US employees worked from the office an average of just 4.9 days per month in Q1 2022, with office capacity sitting at just 25% percent. That’s supported by the fact that Americans are becoming averse to the idea – Zapier finds that 61% of Americans would quit their current job for a fully remote opportunity, and 32% say they have already left a position because they did not have the option to work remotely.
Airbnb announced that its employees could work anywhere in the US and live in one of 170 different countries for 90 days at a time. It will not cut employee pay based on location and plans to bring teams together every quarter for off-sites and social gatherings.
And, it turns out that the “at-will” hybrid is becoming the most popular. 77% of companies have adopted a hybrid working model, per Envoy’s 2022 workplace trends report. Of those who have adopted hybrid, 56% have a hybrid at-will policy, meaning employees can choose which day(s) they come into the office. 11% have the company assigning days, 8% for a manager-based scheduling policy, and the remaining 25% are a mix of all three. 88% are using incentives to get people back onsite.
Finally, Gartner’s research points to job turnover being 20% higher in the “new norm,” which will stay that way. Workers have options, work friendships are weaker, and work-from-anywhere is now table stakes.
Why do we care?
Let’s dispel any of the garbage about productivity. It’s being proven not to be an issue via research studies, validating what we knew instinctively.
Gartner’s research points to needing more recruiters to handle the long-term load of open roles. That’s the critical insight.
Beyond that, there is more to remote work than just where people are. It’s the cultures and systems around being effective. Now that work-from-anywhere is table stakes, the differentiator becomes how good at it are you.