2475 people out of 2500 don’t want to give up their remote working habits. Remote work isn’t simply a trend that will soon lose its relevance. On the contrary, this is what shapes the future of work. Let’s see how it will happen!
Current trends
Benefits of remote work
99% of 2500 remote workers are willing to continue their remote working habits says in a recent study by Buffer.
Why is remote working so appealing? Because of all the perks remote work offers!
- Flexible schedule
Have you ever wanted to work in the evenings without obligatory office visits from 9 to 5? Well, 40% of the survey participants believe that this is the ultimate benefit of remote working. People are productive during different times of the day, so working for fixed hours daily ruins their working abilities.
Flexible schedule ensures that employers dedicate the best time to their work whenever they feel the most energetic and productive. Moreover, the opportunity of scheduling their life and work by themselves makes a positive impact on their stress level – they can find time for family, hobbies, and work.
There is yet another survey by CoSo Cloud that proves off-site remote working is productive. Out of 353 people, 77% agreed they feel more productive working off-site and accomplish more tasks in the same amount of time (24%). At the same time 23% of respondents mentioned they would want to work longer hours, while others felt no need for days-off (52%).
- Dream locations
Remote workers have the independence to work remotely from anywhere, but surprisingly enough, the most popular location is home! 84% of the Buffer survey respondents preferred working from home over co-working spaces, cafes, libraries and else.
Another survey by MomCorps indicates that 42% of working adults out of 1,071 respondents would give up some percentage of their salary to have more flexibility to work from home.
By the way, as a remote worker you’ll have plenty of conference calls that replace physical meetings, so if you plan to join the call from noisy environments like co-working spaces or coffeeshops, then consider getting Krisp. It’s a noise cancellation software that mutes background noise during calls from both sides. This will make your call experience smoother and enable you to take calls from anywhere.
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- Work & Travel balance
The Buffer survey indicates that 44% of remote workers choose remote work to combine it with traveling and they do so at least once a year for a monthly duration.
Some respondents travel for less than a week on a yearly basis (22%) while a few don’t travel at all (7%). If we take into consideration that people enjoy working from home and it’s hard to combine work and travel, these numbers are understandable.
According to the survey by AfterCollege, more than half of the 1,360 participants emphasized the importance of work and life balance (67%) and flexible work schedule (57%) for more opportunities.
- Vacation time
Regarding vacation time, 32% of remote workers in Buffer survey are provided with unlimited yearly vacation. Some participants mentioned they are offered with 4 weeks of vacation (19%), and very few get less than 1 week (0.5%).
Remote work prominence in companies
There are companies that have whole remote based teams; others are more office-oriented. 40% of Buffer survey respondents work in companies that reconcile both remote working and in-office staff. It’s a quite convenient option for workers but not team leads.
On a side note, revealing the results of the Freelancing in America 2017 study, 57.3 Americans are freelancers who contribute to the economy by $1.4 trillion on a yearly basis.
Freelancers are more likely to learn on their own so companies won’t have to pay for training courses and preparations. 55% of the freelancers have participated in skill-related educational programs while non-freelancers compile only 30%.
Company care for remote workers
A remote team is an advantage – you don’t need to rent an office, pay for heating and other expenses. However, some of those expenses lay down on the worker. 75% of employers don’t pay for the internet at employee houses, 71% don’t cover hub costs, 87% don’t reimburse coffee and food from coffee shops.
While working in an office, employers provide these things for free, so it’s disappointing that remote workers must pay for themselves to work comfortably.
Drawbacks of remote work
There are two parts of the stick: some people can’t start working while others can’t seem to stop. 22% of respondents agree that remote work makes it difficult to unplug from work, emphasizing the difference in time zones and schedules, lack of motivation and more.
Handling a conversation outside of your working hours because of time zones can become exhausting. Another disappointing issue is that 19% of remote workers feel lonely. Working from home eliminates the possibility of having casual small talks in the office, corporate lunch and face-to-face meetings and interactions.
Future trends
Advanced digital skills
It’s not a surprise that remote working is closely connected to digital skills. According to Linkedin, “tech skills like web design, data storage, app development, and human-computer interaction represented at least 9 of the 20 fastest growing skills.” The list doesn’t end with that: web developers, software engineers, social media specialists, and others will also be prominent.
University diploma plays a significant role while getting a job, but 78% of HR managers believe that skills are what will matter in these 10 years.
Getting a specific skill may ensure you’ll always be on demand. However, there are many people who possess the same skills. To become an outlier, it’s vital to dig deeper into your profession and be aware of all the details and nuances. Having a particular set of skills is even better, but it’s necessary to provide top quality for your offered skills.
Dream locations of remote work
Do you remember the 19% of surveyed people who felt lonely because of remote work? Well, some companies started adding in-office days to the remote workers’ schedules. It doesn’t mean that the momentum of remote working is gone but rather workers will frequently visit offices to communicate with the team, catch up with news, and network. It’ll bring a balance of socialization and work, which will positively influence the mindset of remote workers. They will become happier, hence more productive.
Trainings
When remote work first emerged in the work sphere, not every remote worker was backed up by their employers to learn, grow and keep networking as opposed to in-office workers.
However, in the recent years more companies started to offer a variety of workshops, training courses, micro and self-paced learning to increase the development and engagement of remote workers.
Remote work growth
The bottom line is remote work is growing and companies are becoming remote-friendly. The conditions in the working system for remote employers become more convenient, and more job opportunities arise as the Generation Z enters the job market.
If now isn’t the best time to transfer to remote working, when is? Whatever skill you choose to develop for earning money remotely, remember – patience and hard work will pay off.
