According to a survey from Upwork, nearly 27% of Americans will be working remotely this year, a jump from the 7% who worked remotely in 2018.
This guarantees that remote working and other flexible work arrangements will continue to play a role in how businesses large and small operate.
Even major companies like Twitter and Dropbox have committed to more permanent work-from-home policies in the future, indicating that remote work trends will continue to evolve this year.
For starters, as some employees express the desire to continue to work from home and others are eager to come into the office, hybrid models will become a mainstay.
By adopting this type of arrangement, companies can accommodate all work styles and keep employees satisfied.
Over the past year, business leaders have used meeting room budgets towards conferencing technology to support the increased need for virtual meetings. In this effort to replace the lack of human interaction, productivity has taken a hit. Moving forward, we can expect that companies will cut down on conference calls to allow more time for actual work.
One of the biggest challenges of remote working arrangements has been the inability to switch off at the end of the day. In fact, a survey from Kentik revealed that 51% of employees were concerned about their work-life balance. That is why it is up to employers to encourage their staff to create boundaries for themselves and teach them how to completely turn off after their work hours.