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Research Outline

Prepared for Morten J. | Delivered October 9, 2020

Remote Working: Overview

Goals

To obtain research/analytical data related to working-from-home before, during, and after COVID; how common it is, what types of jobs there are, and how many workers and companies engage in working from home. In addition, to identify the challenges faced by employers and employees when working from home, what employers invest in for remote working, problems they face and strategies employed, and to identify service providers that help companies transition to remote working.

Early Findings

  • Globalworkplace Analytics has estimated that 25%-30% of the workforce will be working from home multiple days a week by the end of 2021.
  • It further states that "based on historical trends, that those who were working remotely before the pandemic, will increase their frequency after they are allowed to return to their offices. For those who were new to remote work until the pandemic, we believe there will be a significant upswing in their adoption."
  • According to Gallup data from 2016, 43% of the workforce worked at home at least some of the time. The article also states that "before the crisis, surveys repeatedly showed that 80% of employees wanted to work from home at least some of the time." This was the pre-COVID situation.
  • Globalworkplace Analytics also states that the biggest holdup of remote work is trust, and that managers tend to not trust their employees to work unattended. They worry about lost productivity and not being able to collaborate. However, research shows that managers who have worked from home themselves are more likely to endorse it for others.
  • PWC survey findings show that more than half (55%) of US executives expect to allow office workers to work from home at least once a week post-COVID. Only 39% of companies did so before the pandemic.
  • It was also found that executives are more likely to report that employees have become more productive (44%) working from home during the crisis, compared to only 28% of employees who felt more productive. The main challenges faced by remote workers were difficulties in collaborating (39%) and balancing work with home duties such as childcare.