How COVID Affected Work-From-Home Policies
The pandemic devastated industries worldwide this past year but many of the surviving businesses have been able to continue operations through remote work and limited time in a traditionally shared office. Although this shift was done as a means to keep employees safe and healthy, it’s become an interesting experiment for companies who have been reluctant to trust their employees to be productive in their own homes.
Remote work has actually been on the rise prior to 2020. In late 2019, it had accounted for 16% of the entire American workforce. When the coronavirus hit America and shared spaces were deemed unsafe, that number rose to 51% in the spring.
In tech, remote work is here to stay. Intel announced to their employees that they will extend working from home through at least the summer of 2021. Microsoft has implemented a new policy that permanently allows its employees to work up to 50% of the week outside of the office. Even the government is at a turning point, with up to 70% of federal executives expecting employees who are not on classified systems, to work from home 3-4 days a week.
So where do we go from here?
Employees are getting used to staying at home and this desire is being reflected in the job market. Many listings on Indeed are highlighting their work-from–home policies in an attempt to appease to these in-demand workers and why wouldn’t they? A remote job market increases its pool of candidates beyond the surrounding area of their offices.
Working from home makes sense now more than ever. It removes the daily stresses of dealing with long commutes, finding childcare, paying for expensive offices, and most importantly, mitigates the risk of an illness outbreak that could incapacitate a team and render them unproductive.
As America begins the recovery process, many employees are wondering just how many of these COVID era policies will persist, and frankly, will they ever see their old offices again?
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