Is Working From Home The Future Of Work?

Many people have said that being able to work from home is the future of work. This, along with technological advances, has made it easier than ever to stay in touch. And, most importantly, as the job market has become more competitive over the past ten years, employers have increased benefits like working from home to give workers more freedom.

But the coronavirus outbreak has forced companies to let employees work from home or force them to. This unexpected challenge for employers to manage remote workers and for employees to stay connected and productive at home may end up being a testing ground for future work-from-home policies.

In this article, we use datasets to look at the current state of work-from-home benefits. First, we look at how many people can work from home now and how that has changed over the last ten years. Then, we look into what kinds of workers or employers are more likely to have access to work-from-home options. Accessibility is analyzed in terms of employment status, industry, occupation, and employer size.

The current state of work-from-home policies and their development over time is worthy of close examination, as employers and workers alike are being pressured to adapt to new ways of doing their jobs.

The Availability Of Remote Work Options Has Increased In The Past Decade

According to data compiled by Glassdoor, 54% of American workers say they are offered the option to work remotely. A significant increase from 2011, when only 28% of workers reported having access to the benefit, to today's figure is a huge win for the economy.

Employees are now 4.3 percentage points happier with their jobs because of flexible scheduling and remote work options than they were in the early 2010s. Employees are much more satisfied with the option to work from home (4.3 out of 5) than with health insurance (3.7), vacation and paid time off (3.8), or 401(k) plans (3.8).

It's interesting to note that 11% of employees admit they don't know if their company offers remote work options. Weak policy communication or peer pressure against working remotely could be to blame for the uncertainty. Whatever the case may be, this represents a lost chance to inform workers of the full extent of their benefits. Despite the fact that opportunities to work remotely have expanded rapidly over the past decade, not all workers have the same level of access to these opportunities.

The varied nature of contract work is reflected in the fact that contract and freelance workers report just as high a prevalence of work-from-home options as do full-time workers. Some contract workers are hired for on-site tasks, but many contract positions are available in white-collar professional services, such as graphic design and copywriting, that can be performed from home.

Industry and Job Title Requirements Impact Availability

There are other challenges to working remotely besides technological limitations and a lack of encouragement from employers. Certain occupations and industries can't function without having their employees physically present. Most jobs in the hospitality industry, retail, transportation, and construction, for instance, require direct human interaction with clients and products. Those sectors are clustered at the bottom of the following chart, where fewer than three out of ten workers have telecommuting options.

However, almost three-quarters of workers in professional and technical services, such as information technology and insurance, say they have the option to do so. Employees in these fields typically work behind a desk and are not as dependent on an office building for their livelihood. The technology sector in particular has been an early adopter of remote work due to its reputation for innovation and creativity.

Offering Remote Jobs Is Especially Beneficial For Smaller Companies

The majority of workers (55%) at companies with fewer than 50 employees are allowed to occasionally or regularly work from home. While this is lower than the largest employers, employees of these small businesses express greater satisfaction with their work-from-home opportunities than those of medium- to large-sized businesses, suggesting that small businesses provide the best of both worlds.

The ability to leverage close relationships to maintain productivity and connectedness while working remotely may be especially useful for small employers, as opposed to the infrastructure and ability to more easily offer work from home arrangements enjoyed by large employers. There may be more peer pressure at larger companies to discourage telecommuting. It would appear that medium-sized businesses are caught between two competing forces: they cannot provide the same flexible working options as their larger counterparts, and they do not enjoy the same level of employee satisfaction that comes with being a smaller, more personal company.

These numbers show that in the last decade, employers' offerings of work-from-home opportunities to American workers have doubled. However, availability varies widely depending on factors such as occupation, employer, industry, and location. Presently, more than half of full-time employees are eligible for work-from-home perks, but only about one-fifth of those who work less than full-time are.

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