Remote Work Is the Wave of the Future

Remote work seems to be the newest trend of the future. As per a recent survey done at the Global Leadership Summit, it was found that 35 companies claimed that half of their company’s workforce (who is working full-time) will choose to work remotely from their homes or from other places by 2020. 25 more said that three-quarters would stop working from their corporate cubicles by 2020 which isn’t far off from now. That’s just two years from now and this is called the futuristic era.

Despite this rising trend, there are many organizations where getting the permission to work from home for a day or two in one week is deemed to be a big perk which has to be negotiated with the employer. This seems to be at odds until it dawns on you what ‘remote’ actually means for you. If remote work means just checking your email on Sunday night, then hey, you’ve already got a work-from-home job.

A Generational Shift Is Being Witnessed

But this is not all that is being noticed. The Director of Learning at the London Business School notes that there’s another topic that is coming up at the Global Leadership Summit and this is that more and more millennials are approaching work-from-home options. 8 Figure Dream Life is a company which provides mentors to help such people take control over their career by offering them tools, training and community support.

The number one reason behind being attracted to such workplaces is ‘flexibility’ as people wish to get an afternoon off and catch up on a Sunday morning and telecommute from a home office. The younger generation is totally aware of the fact that they can send an email or make an important call to someone from any place. This has become a criterion which people are looking for before they sign on the dotted line. Hence, it’s not a reward or a perk.

State of Telecommuting in the US Employee Workforce Report 2017 – A Few Stats

Both the US Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics have done an analysis on the details of rapid growth of telecommuting over the period of a decade. Here are a few amazing findings:

• Increase in Telecommuting

The total number of people who telecommute in the US increased 120% from 2005 to 2016.

• How Many Telecommute Half-Time

This is interesting! 9 million American employees or 3% of the total American workforce work from remote places at least half of the time and this is also up from 1.8 million in the year 2005.

• Salaries and Education of Telecommuters

The average telecommuter has a bachelor’s degree and they earn a higher median salary as compared to an office worker.

• Gender and Age of Telecommuters

The average telecommuter is 46 years of age or more than that. This occupation is more popular among the employees who are more than 35 years of age and most commonly they are baby boomers.

By not having to travel to an office every day, workers regain the equivalent of 11 days in a year. Employers are also seeing some kinds of savings from allowing flexible scheduling. When you let a worker telecommute most of the time, this can save the employer more than $11,000 in a year. This leads to the retention of old employees and the gaining of new ones as well.