We’ve been talking about the value, benefits, and pitfalls of remote work since the beginning of the pandemic. As more workers got a taste of working from home, more business owners started to wonder about the long-term impacts.

Now that we’re well into 2022, it’s time to reassess. How are things going? What trends can we predict from companies and from employee expectations?

There are still plenty of questions left to be answered, but we’ve got a big batch of remote work statistics that might change the way you think about remote work in 2022.

As always, our goal is to help you find out about remote work. Read on to get the facts about remote work in 2022.

Remote Workers Want to Stay Remote

Thanks to the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of North American employees got the opportunity to work from home. Yes, there have been remote jobs available for several years now, but many of these employees were used to coming into an office several days a week. Now, they’ve seen what it’s like to do that same job from home (or on the go), and they don’t want to go back.

Let’s look at the numbers. According to Gallup, 45% of workers are spending at least some of the week working remotely. Of that 45%, nine out of ten want things to stay that way. The implication for companies is that if they want to keep employees happy, they’re going to have to consider, at the very least, a hybrid approach and offer both in-person and remote options.

A Quarter of North American Jobs Are Already Remote

What about employers? How do they feel about this push for permanent remote options? Perhaps your company has resisted the shift–does that mean that everyone else is, too?

The short answer is no. According to Forbes, 25% of all professional jobs will be done remotely at least part of the time by the end of the year. What that means for reluctant business owners is that if you don’t offer your employee remote options, another employer will.

Remote Work Boosts Productivity

At the beginning of the pandemic, many business owners worried that they’d see a huge dip in productivity by letting their employees work from home. After all, there could be far more distractions in a home environment and far less oversight. Are remote employees slacking on the job when the boss isn’t there to look over their shoulders?

Once again, the short answer is no. According to a groundbreaking Standford study that observed 1,000 newly remote employees over a nine-month period, productivity went up by 13% when employees were allowed to work from home. Better still, the turnover rate fell by 50% during the study, indicating that employees with remote options are more satisfied with their positions.

Remote Work Could Help Communities Grow

So far, we’re seeing a lot of remote options cropping up in cities and major metropolitan areas. Part of the reason for this comes down to infrastructure: there is a higher chance that everyone has a reliable internet connection outside of the office. However, it’s also important to consider the fact that a lot of companies with the resources to offer remote options aren’t leaving the city–and maybe it’s time that they do.

According to Bloomberg, there’s good reason to believe that offering more remote options in rural or overlooked parts of the nation could boost those communities’ growth. In 2018, a program was established in Tulsa to do exactly that, and by offering remote positions, the city wound up with $62 million more in new income.

Why should companies feel incentivized to help small or overlooked communities grow? The cost to run a business outside of a major city is often much lower, as is the cost of living. You can reduce your overhead while still expanding your company and your profits.

There Are Some Cybersecurity Risks to Account For

It can’t all be great news. Yes, there are some clear benefits of remote working, but like anything else, there are a few pitfalls. The biggest one is the cybersecurity risk that can arise from letting employees clock in from their own private or public networks.

North Bay Business Journal reports that over half of IT professionals are concerned about the state of cybersecurity in the face of this new age. The good news is that there is a solution, but it will require companies to take charge of acquiring security software, training employees on how to use it, and ensuring that everyone is practicing cyber safety from a distance.

Remote Work Creates Balance at Little Cost

Think back to the 2010s, when startups were dumping money into taco bars, ping-pong tables, beanbag chairs, and other flashy incentives that were meant to make work more fun. That phase felt like a long one, but we did eventually come to the collective confusion that it wasn’t working. Employees don’t want to have more fun at work, they want more control over their own time.

According to Business Wire, more employees are seeking improved work-life balance over increased compensation. By letting your employees work from home, you give them back the hours of the day spent commuting, more flexibility throughout their day, and a better sense of work-life balance.

RWMS Can Help Your Company Transition

Reassessing the remote work statistics of 2022, it’s clear that remote work is here to stay. If you’re ready to make the transition or already have but feel that things could be better, we’re here to help.

At Remote Work Made Simple, we offer assessments and certification programs to help you pinpoint the areas that need improvement and patch up operational holes. From your cybersecurity to your productivity, we’re here to get things on the right track. Get started today with RWMS and we’ll provide a free one-hour assessment of your remote business.

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How to Get Microsoft 365 Set Up Right

 

Prepare your business to go remote and discover: 

     
  • How to easily understand user permissions 
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  • The importance of developing and maintaining an organizational chart
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  • Different types of user “access” and why you may choose one over another

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