2020 was by far the most successful year for remote job board growth, according to Virtual VocationsOpens a new window – a job service that provides remote job leads. More than 460,000 remote job openings were added to the job board last year.
Virtual Vocations’ sixth annual year-end reportOpens a new window , notes how full-time enterprise-level employees in the U.S. reacted to the reality of remote work environment.
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The Pulse on Remote Work
Shifting to remote work appeared to pose challenges for different sectors. For instance, the blue-collar workers couldn’t work from home permanently. Instead, organizations were adjusting work schedules to minimize exposure and even embrace tech to drive efficiencies. OpenSpace, a San Francisco-based company, made headlines after developing navigable 360-degree photosOpens a new window with the help of AI that will allow builders and site managers to virtually tour an area during the pandemic.
However, there are no prizes for guessing that the tech sector is leading the way when it comes to working remotely. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, and Google have already switchedOpens a new window to long-term remote work.
The Virtual Vocations report also revealed that approximately 20% of all remote jobs added to its job board last year belonged to the IT category. Besides, health, sales, and education were listed among the top four domains that posted the maximum number of remote jobs.
The report listed VocoVision, UnitedHealth Group, Stride, Inc (formerly K12 Inc.), and Oracle as the top four companies enabling a conducive remote work environment.
Employees Are Loving It
Collating the findings from four more surveys of 4800 remote workers and remote job-seekers conducted by Virtual Vocations, it is known that 92% respondents prefer to work remotely, and post-pandemic 65% of them want to work remotely from home every day as opposed to merely 5% of respondents who want to work completely from onsite locations.
Findings from other global studies also indicate that working remotely is high on the preference agenda of most employees. An IBM surveyOpens a new window informed that 54% of respondents would like to make work-from-home their primary working method.
Not Everyone Is on the Same Page
However, not everyone feels the same. A recent NintexOpens a new window study notes that Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and GenZs have different engagement drivers while working remotely. Â While Gen Xers are looking for more work schedule flexibility, the Millennials and Gen Zs want better tech equipment and easier-to-use automation software to improve WFH productivity.
Employees with dependents, both adults and children, are also finding it quite challenging to work from home. Actually, close to 9.8 million working mothers in the U.S. alone are suffering from burnoutOpens a new window throughout the pandemic and belong to a segment that has signaled the desire to return to work.
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In Closing
Like it or not, work-from-home as a trend is here to stay. Though working remotely has its perks, it introduces some real challenges in the mix for a broader demographic. The future probably lies in coming up with an ideal tech-enabled remote work environment that promotes trust, care, and belonging while evaluating performance fairly.