Remote work is a long-term trend, not an emergency option.

Are you building your long-term strategy on the assumption that in the future we will return to “office life”? Forget it! People like to work from home and this should be taken into account.

In a seemingly distant 2019, according to the International Labor Organization, only 7% of employees and the self-employed worked remotely worldwide. In the US this figure, according to Gallup, was slightly higher than 8%. EU statistics spoke of 5.4%. If you think about it, quite a lot. Especially if you consider categories such as self-employed. In the EU, 36% of people in this category worked at home.

The trend towards a gradual increase in the proportion of the workforce who will work fully or partly from home was quite obvious, and there is nothing surprising in this, considering technological progress. Futurologists confidently predicted the advent of the era of virtual offices and shops, as well as remote management of corporations, plants and factories. But no one expected that this future would arrive so quickly.

Starting in 2020, we began experiencing explosive growth in the level of remote work. According to various estimates, the global figure reached 70% or even higher. For example, AT&T Business claims that in 2021 in the US, 56% of employees worked completely remotely and another 42% worked in a hybrid model – partly at home, partly in the office.

Gallup also cites similar figures. Of those who could theoretically work remotely (and that’s 70 million people!), only 23% of those who theoretically could work remotely last year worked in the “office only” mode, according to a study conducted in the United States.

Of course, we owe these drastic changes primarily to That-What-We-Won’t-Name-19. But, again, this is how it all went. Sociology on the topic clearly shows that the majority of those who work or can work remotely prefer this format. For example, according to Owl Labs, 90% of those who work remotely during the pandemic feel they are performing their duties as well as in the office, and 84% would like to continue working from home even further, even if it means taking some pay cuts. It also claims that remote workers feel happier than office workers and are more willing to agree to a longer working day.

No less interesting information can be gleaned from the REMOTE.CO study. 84% of professionals surveyed named the possibility of telecommuting as one of the determining factors when choosing a job, ahead of such a factor as the level of salary by 3%. And the icing on the cake is that 63% of those surveyed intend to look for another job if they cannot continue to work remotely!

Of course, despite the global experiment of recent years, not all companies and employers are ready to head for remote work. Some for objective reasons – it is difficult for a bodyguard, a construction worker or an ambulance doctor to be able to work at home. Others, subjectively, are conservative and want to continue working the way they are used to. But the positions of both will be driven by inexorable progress, both technological and social.

This year, 16% of companies are expected to work completely remotely, 44% will not use remote work, and 40% will choose a hybrid option.

As for the future, here, perhaps, it is worth focusing on the AT&T Business forecast for the US. According to him, the share of companies that have switched to a purely remote work format will drop from 56% in 2021 to 19% in 2024, but, at the same time, the share of companies working on a hybrid scheme will increase from 42% to 81%.

What follows from this? Firstly, the role and importance of remote work tools will grow. In particular, designed to create and conduct all types of online presentations. Including our web service and application, Pitch Avatar, equipped with a unique operational communication system and allowing you to turn the recording of any online presentation into a round-the-clock live broadcast.

Good luck to everyone, successful presentations and high income!