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Top 101 Work From Home Statistics: Guide to Telecommuting
Remote work is the future. And the numbers don’t lie. We’ve compiled the top 101 work from home statistics in the internet so you can see for yourself that telecommuting is becoming the norm.
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- January 20th, 2020
Imagine a life where your office chair is your couch with warm home-brewed coffee at your arm’s reach. You don’t have to wear a suit, spend hours grooming your hair, nor commute for hours. Your office is literally, just a few steps away.
Do you think I’m dreaming? No. Telecommuting is now a reality and these work from home statistics tell us that it’s the way forward.
What is Remote Work?
Remote work is a practice that allows professionals to work outside the traditional four corners of an office. Remote working is based on the belief that work doesn’t have to be confined in a specific environment to be completed successfully.
“63% of US companies now have remote workers.” —2018 Future Workforce Report
Remote employees work wherever, whenever, and however they want. Instead of commuting each to work in a cubicle or desk, remote workers work in the comfort of their homes or the chill atmosphere of a coffee shop. Some even take it to a whole new level by working in the tropics.
This promise of flexibility makes remote working very attractive, particularly to the younger generations. And to companies too — thanks to the various cost savings and productivity boosts it offers (i.e. reduced overhead costs, etc.). Take a look at these work from home statistics:
“Dell’s flexible program has saved it an average of $12 million annually since 2014 due to reduced office space requirements.” —2019 Global Talent Trends Report
“47% of Aetna’s employees use flexible workspaces. That let Aetna get rid of 2.7 million square feet of office space, a savings of about $78 million annually.” —Aetna
“50% of employers who offer their employees remote work say that remote work has reduced absenteeism, and 50% said it has saved them operational costs (50%).” —2019 Global Trends Report
Is Remote Work Different From Telecommute Work?
While often used interchangeably, remote working and telecommuting are not entirely the same. This blog post from Glassdoor highlights some key differences. I’ll also present them here for your convenience.
| REMOTE WORK | TELECOMMUTING |
| You can work from anywhere with no restrictions on timezone, state, or country. | You’re not generally expected to come to the office, but you might have to reside in a certain state, region, or country. |
| You are not expected to come into the office for meetings or team building activities. | You might need to be available for team building exercises, in-person meetings, and/or to visit local clients. |
| Your colleagues might also be located all over the globe. | A couple of other reasons companies might want to keep you close: 1) To reduce shipping costs for equipment; 2) To avoid paying sales taxes in the states or country where their workers are based. |
Telecommuting is not just an antiquated term. So for job seekers looking for remote work or telecommute work, make sure you do your homework. The same is true for companies looking for such workers — make sure expectations and distinctions are made from the get-go.
“When asked “Flexible work arrangements would or do allow me to be more productive,” 47% of survey respondents said they strongly agree, 31% said they strongly agree, 18% were neutral, 2% somewhat disagreed and 2% strongly disagreed.” —The State of Flexible Work Arrangements 2018
Advantages of Working from Home for Employers
“When asked “would you like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of your career?” 99% said they would.” —Buffer State of Remote Work 2019
The allure of flexibility alone is more than enough to turn a worn-out office worker who’s tired of commuting for hours into a work from home worker. But if you’re a business owner, what’s in it for you?
#1 Reduced Overhead Costs
Chairs, desk, power bills, snacks, and office supplies — these are just some of the overhead expenditures that you don’t have to worry about when you let your employees work from home. There are even cases when employers request their remote workers to use their home computers and personal phone lines to get the work done.
#2 Lower Turnover Rate
Job satisfaction increases when employees can work on their terms — leading to lower turnover rates. This gives your company a pool of talent that has an increasing degree of knowledge about your business, greater loyalty, and are more productive. You’ll also save on hiring and onboarding costs.
#3 Higher Productivity and Morale
According to recent work from home statistics, remote workers who enjoy more autonomy in their work are more productive and happier compared to their peers who are working in an office environment. Increased morale and better productivity can greatly benefit your company’s bottom-line earnings.
“54% of employees who are allowed to work remotely say that it improves morale.” —Remote Work Survey
The Biggest Challenges
So far, in this guide to telecommuting, we’ve only been looking at the good side of remote working. Remote work is wonderful and comes with more benefits than the three we’ve discussed in this blog post. But it’s not without its challenges. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns.
#1 Communication Issues
“The number one challenge for fully remote workers is communication (27%). Social opportunities are the second-biggest challenge (16%), loneliness and isolation the third (13%). Other challenges fully remote workers have include setting boundaries, organic interaction, visibility and time zones.” —The Remote Work Report 2019
Communication is very important in telecommuting. Businesses must invest in honing their employees’ communication skills and must take advantage of technology (i.e. video conferencing etc.) instead of just relying on emails and phone calls.
Basecamp founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeir paint a perfect picture of what communication issue is like when telecommuting:
“When the bulk of your communication happens via email and the like, it doesn’t take much for bad blood to develop unless everyone is making their best effort to the contrary. Small misunderstandings that could have been nipped in the bud with the wink of an eye or a certain tone of voice can quickly snowball into drama.”
#2 Lack of Social Interaction and Loneliness
Working from home can alienate you from your coworkers. You might also get into the habit of sitting down your computer and working all day. Even with the internet and tools like Skype and Slack, becoming a “hermit” is a possibility for most remote workers. In the office, people interact with each other — perhaps even share a meal. Remote workers? Most of them only have houseplants, dogs, or cats to talk to.
Businesses can help their remote workers combat isolation by organizing frequent retreats.
#3 Security Issues
Working remotely means you can connect anywhere. Public internet connections can pose serious security risks for your business.
To mitigate these, businesses should require remote workers to install antivirus in all their devices, use services like 1Password to store and control passwords securely, and use VPN services when connecting to the internet.
#4 Work-Life Balance
For office workers, the workday ends when everyone goes home. Telecommuters, on the other hand, may find it difficult to unplug from work. Hence, disrupting the work-life balance. Establishing specific working hours per day with some degree of flexibility depending on the schedules of each team member can help overcome this challenge.
Top 101 Work From Home Statistics
📈 On Growth of Remote Work…
42% of remote workers plan to work remotely more frequently than they currently do in the next 5 years, and that more than half of on-site workers want to start working remotely. — 2019 State Of Remote Work 2019
“Since 2016, the number of job posts on LinkedIn that mention work flexibility rose by over 78%.” —2019 Global Talent Trends Report
“In 2018, 16% of roles posted on We Work Remotely belonged to fully remote companies. In 2014, only 2% of roles posted were from fully remote companies with no headquarters.” —The Remote Work Report
“Managers expect there to be more remote workers on their teams. Five times more hiring managers expect more of their team to work remotely in the next 10 years, than those who expect fewer to work remotely in the next 10 years.” —2018 Future Workforce Report
“The percent of employees who worked remotely 100% of the time was 20%, up from 15% in 2012.” —Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report
“Between 2013 and 2017 the percentage of LinkedIn members who said that flexible work arrangements are very important when considering a job increased from 25% to 31%.” —2019 Global Talent Report
“Two-thirds of people believe that future career paths will be determined not by companies, but by the workers themselves.” —Work-life 3.0
“In 2016, 31% of remote workers reported working outside of the office 80% of more of the time, up from 24% in 2012.” —Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report
🛎 On the State of Remote Work…
“In the US, remote workers work remotely full-time 66% more often than the global average.” —State Of Remote Work 2019
“When asked “Does anyone on your teamwork remotely 100% of the time?” 69% of respondents said yes.” —The Remote Work Report 2019
“42% of people who are 100% remote said they have been working remotely for more than 5 years. 28% said they have been working remotely for 3 to 5 years. 19% said they have been working remotely for 1 to 2 years. And 11% said they had been working remotely for less than a year.” —The Remote Work Report
“63% of US companies now have remote workers.” —2018 Future Workforce Report
🤨 On Remote Work Challenges…
“The number one challenge for fully remote workers is communication (27%). Social opportunities are the second-biggest challenge (16%), loneliness and isolation the third (13%). Other challenges fully remote workers have include setting boundaries, organic interaction, visibility and time zones.” —The Remote Work Report
“39% of small business staff said a downside of working remotely is that they work longer hours than they should when they work outside of the office.” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“For small business staff who said they work best when they’re at home, TV and chores were the biggest distractions (27%).” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“The second-biggest downside of working remotely is procrastination (41% of small business staff).” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“The biggest downside of working remotely is distractions, according to the Avast Mobile Workforce Report. 46% of small business staff said that ‘getting distracted’ is the biggest downside of mobile working.” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“Loneliness and collaborating/communicating were tied for the top challenge remote workers face. 21% of remote workers named “loneliness” as their biggest struggle when working remotely, and 21% said collaborating/communicating was their biggest struggle.” —Buffer State of Remote Work 2018
“37% of people who work at companies that allow remote work believe that working remotely can result in less visibility and less access to leadership.” —Remote Work Survey
“Employees who work remotely at least part of the time report that workplace politics are a bigger challenge, and that when conflicts arise, they have a harder time resolving them.” —2017 VitalSmarts Survey
👵🏾 On Telecommuting Demographics…
“Departments with the greatest remote work participation include facilities/operations/IT (18%), customer support/service/success (14%), and sales (13%), and administrative (11%).” —2019 State Of Remote Work
“The industries with the most remote workers include healthcare (15%), technology/internet (10%), financial services (9%), education (8%) and manufacturing (7%).” —2019 State Of Remote Work
“Individual contributors are more likely (20%) to work remotely full time.” —2018 Global State of Remote Work
“Small companies are twice as likely to hire remote employees.” —2017 State of Remote Work
🎭 On Sentiments About Remote Working…
“23% of remote workers fear that working remotely will impact their career progression.” —State Of Remote Work 2019
“Remote workers are happier at work than non-remote workers. While 71% of remote workers said that they are happy in their job, only 55% of on-site workers said that they are happy in their job.” —State Of Remote Work 2019
“When asked “would you like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of your career?” 99% said they would.” —Buffer State of Remote Work 2019
“The top 3 reasons people would recommend working remotely to a friend include: Freedom and flexibility, no commute, and increased productivity.” —The Remote Work Report
“91% of remote workers said working remotely is a good fit for them.” —The Remote Work Report
“54% of employees who are allowed to work remotely say that it improves morale.” —Remote Work Survey
“More than half (57%) of employees who are allowed to work from home say working from home reduces stress.” —Remote Work Survey
“75% of employees who are allowed to work from home say that doing so has improved their work-life balance.” —Remote Work Survey
“73% of employees surveyed said that flexible work arrangements increased their satisfaction at work.” —The State of Flexible Work Arrangements 2018
“Dice.com asked in an anonymous online survey, “What perks do you want in a job offer?” Remote work was tied with health benefits as the most popular answer (28%).” —Dice Survey
“12% of small business staff would choose not having to work in an office over a pay raise of 25% or more. Only 8% said they would accept a pay raise of 1-5% to give up remote working and work in an office.” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“Over half of the small business staff (52%) said they would prefer to take a pay cut rather than be restricted to working in an office.” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“When asked which type of flexibility they’re most interested in, 81% of survey respondents said they were interested in Telecommuting 100% of the time.” —FlexJobs’ 6th Annual Super Survey
“Flexible work policies at companies with happy staff and those with unhappy staff were compared in the Staples Advantage Workplace Index study. At companies with unhappy staff, only 17% of those companies offered staff flexible timing and telecommuting, and 48% offered neither flexible timing nor telecommuting.” —Staples Advantage Workplace Index
“Employees who reported spending 60% to 80% out of the office working had the highest rates of engagement at work.” —Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report
🚀 On Productivity When Working Remotely…
“Remote workers say they work more than 40 hours per week 43% more than on-site workers do. However, on-site workers are also working longer weeks because it’s required of them, while more remote workers are doing so because they enjoy what they do.” —2019 State Of Remote Work
“22% of companies with remote work policies believe remote workers are equally as productive as those who work in an office.” —Remote Work Survey
“Employers of companies with remote policies believe that remotely makes workers more productive. 72% of companies with remote work policies believe that remote work makes workers more productive.” —Remote Work Survey
“Working remotely means less stress and anxiety that affects productivity. Stress and anxiety affecting the productivity of small business staff was 35% in the office and only 26% for those working outside of the office.” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“One in five small business staff (21%) states that they are most productive when working in public spaces like a cafe or library.” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“38% of small business staff said they are most productive when working from home. That’s more than said they are most productive when working in the office (35%).” —The Avast Business 2018 Mobile Workforce Report
“73% of people who work from home said they put more effort than was required into their job. 68.5% of those who work from the office said the same.” —Professor Alan Felstead of Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences
“People believe they would be more productive working remotely due to fewer distractions than the office (76%) and fewer interruptions from colleagues (76%).” —FlexJobs’ 6th Annual Super Survey
“The CoSo Cloud Remote Worker Survey found that of the 39% who said they work remotely at least a few times per month, 77% reported higher productivity while working outside of the office. 30% said they accomplished more in less time, and 24% said they accomplished more at the same time.” —CoSo Cloud Remote Worker Survey
“Best Buy reported in 2006 that productivity had, on average, gone up by 35% in departments that shifted to working from wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.” —Best Buy
💁♂️ On Retaining Employees…
“Remote workers are 13% more likely than on-site workers to say that they will stay in their current job for the next 5 years.” —State Of Remote Work 2019
“Nearly a third of remote workers (30%) whose companies had remote policies said they would consider looking for another job if their companies took away the remote work policy.” —Remote Work Survey
“Of the 52% of employees who wish their current employers allowed remote work, 37% have considered looking for a job that does, and 14% are actively looking.” —Remote Work Survey
“Flexible work arrangements are a major consideration for 77% of employees when evaluating future job opportunities.” —The State of Flexible Work Arrangements
“Companies that allow remote work experience 25% less employee turnover than companies that do not allow remote work.” —2017 State of Remote Work
“54% of office workers said they would leave their job for a job that offers flexible work time (the choice over when they worked).” —Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report
“37% of people would switch to a job that gave them the ability to work off-site at least part of the time.” —Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report
📝 On Remote Work Policies…
“53% of employees surveyed as part of The State of Flexible Work Arrangements say that there’s no official flexible work policy in place at their company.” —The State of Flexible Work Arrangements
“Remote work policies are most common at midsize companies with 201 to 500 employees, two-thirds of which (67%) said they had remote-work policies.” —Remove Work Survey
“55% of the employers surveyed by Indeed as part of their Remote Work Survey said they offer their employees a remote work policy.” —Remove Work Survey
💸 On Costs…
“Nearly 60% of Dell employees work flexibly. The Net Promoter Scores of these employees who work remotely are 20% higher than those who don’t work remotely.” —2019 Global Talent Trends Report
“50% of employers who offer their employees remote work say that remote work has reduced absenteeism, and 50% said it has saved them operational costs (50%).” —Remote Work Survey
“Over half (57%) of employers who offer their employees remote work say that remote work has improved morale and also reduced employee turnover (52%).” —Remote Work Survey
“47% of Aetna’s employees use flexible workspaces. That let Aetna get rid of 2.7 million square feet of office space, a savings of about $78 million annually.” —Aetna
💰 On Revenue…
“As companies get larger, the growth difference between remote teams and non-remote teams diminishes. Companies who were remote-first and are doing $10M to $75M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) had 10 to 15% percent slower growth than co-located-first teams. At $75M or over, the difference between remote-first and non-remote-first growth disappears.” —Are remote teams growing slower than their co-located counterparts?
“Remote companies are growing at a slower rate in their early stages than companies where everyone is co-located. Remote-first teams with $1 to $10M Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) have growth rates that are roughly 20 to 30% lower than their co-located-first counterparts.” —Are remote teams growing slower than their co-located counterparts?
👩🎤 On Millennials in the Workforce…
“Millennial managers believe that in the next 3 years, 2 out of 5 full-time employees will be working remotely.” —2019 Future Workforce Report 2019
“Millennials expect to stay at jobs with more flexibility for longer. 17% of millennials said they expect to stay for more than 5 years at organizations with less flexibility, while 55% of millennials expect to stay at organizations where there is more flexibility.” —2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey
“50% of millennials consider the flexibility of location where they work and hours to be very important when choosing whether or not to work for an organization.” —2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey
“47% of millennials said they would change jobs to have a flexible working location where they could choose to work off-site full time. Only 31% of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers said the same, a 16 percentage point difference.” —Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report
“68% of job seekers who are millennials said an option to work remotely would greatly increase their interest in specific employers, according to a survey by AfterCollege.” —AfterCollege Career Insight Survey
✍️ On Hiring…
“In August 2019, 31% of companies younger than 2 years old that were posting jobs on AngelList had at least one open remote role, compared to 26% of companies older than 2 years.” —The Remote Work Report
“7600 startups were hiring remote roles on AngelList live in August 2019. More than 1500 of these companies are mostly or fully remote companies.” —The Remote Work Report
“Managers favor skills over being in the office together. Two times as many hiring managers cite employees having the right skills as being more important than working in the same location as the rest of the team.” —2018 Future Workforce Report
👨👩👧👦 On Meetings…
“The biggest challenges for remote workers during hybrid meetings are interruptions/being talked over (67%) and IT issues during meetings (59%).” —2019 State Of Remote Work
“When asked “Which of the following video/audio chat tools do you use in remote meetings?” 69% said Zoom. 41% said Google Hangouts. 22% said other. 22% said Skype for Business. And 10% said WebEx.” —The Remote Work Report
“91% of people who work remotely or from an office have had a remote meeting in the last 7 days.” —The Remote Work Report
🛫 On Work Lifestyle…
“Remote work gives people the opportunity to travel more. When asked “How often do you travel and work outside your home city (including work retreats and conferences)” 44% of remote workers said they travel while working between one week and one month per year. 25% said they work/travel for more than one month of the year. Only 7% said that they never traveled and worked at the same time.” —Buffer State of Remote Work 2019
“Remote workers primarily work from home. When asked where they primarily work from, 78% of remote workers said they use their home as their primary place of work. 9% said they use the office as their primary place of work, coworking spaces came in at 7%, and cafes at 5%.” —Buffer State of Remote Work 2019
❤️ On Health…
“50% of employees who are allowed to work from home said working from home reduces sick days.” —Remote Work Survey
“Of those employees who are allowed to work from home, 56% said it reduces absence from work.” —Remote Work Survey
“46% of people think flexible work would improve their sex life.” —Work-Life-Relationship Survey
“50% of people believe that flexible work would give them more time for dates” —Work-Life-Relationship Survey
“90% of people think a flexible job would help them take better care of themselves.” —Work-Life-Relationship Survey
“89% of people think a flexible job would decrease their stress.” —Work-Life-Relationship Survey
“41% of people say they do less physical activity as a result of their commute to work.” —Royal Society for Public Health Study
🙇♂️ On Learning Style…
“Physical and auditory learners who learn best when listening or using experiences are 22% more likely than average to work remotely to minimize stress.” —2018 Global State of Remote Work
“Those who learn best visually, by using images, maps, and diagrams, are 35% more likely than average to work remotely to gain better productivity and focus.” —2018 Global State of Remote Work
“People who identified the most with physical learning styles that use experiences, simulations, and physical objects, are 56% more likely than the average to be fully remote.” —2018 Global State of Remote Work
🌳 On the Environment…
“People who work from home right now in the US avoid emitting 3.6 million tons of commuting-related greenhouse gasses annually. To get the same result, 91 million trees would need to be planted.” —FlexJobs
“Utah’s remote work pilot program with 136 employees who worked from home at least 3 days a week saved 273 pounds of vehicle emissions.” —Deseret News
“Remote working reduces oil consumption by 640 million barrels.” —Work Remote Day
“Remote working decreases greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons.” —Work Remote Day
“Working remotely mitigates climate change annually. It reduces gas consumption by over $20 million.” —Work Remote Day
“Xerox’s remote workers drove 92 million fewer miles. That saved 4.6 million gallons of gas and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by almost 41,000 metric tons.” —FlexJobs
🤝 On Coworking…
“The dominant players in the flexible office market in the US are WeWork, Spaces, Knotel.” —Let’s Talk About Flex, The U.S. Flexible Office Market in 2019
“Flexible office space like co-working spaces accounts for almost 71 million square feet in the US.” —Let’s Talk About Flex, The U.S. Flexible Office Market in 2019
“Flexible office supply in the US grew by 34% for the year ending Q2 2019.” —Let’s Talk About Flex, The U.S. Flexible Office Market in 2019
“Flexible office space has increased by 600% in the US for an average annual growth rate of 26% since 2010.” —Let’s Talk About Flex, The U.S. Flexible Office Market in 2019
“Coworking spaces make people happier. In a survey of members of coworking spaces, 89% of respondents said that they were happier since joining a coworking space.” —Spring Coworking Space Member Survey
“In a survey of coworking space members, 54% said that they socialize with other coworking space members after work and on weekends.” —Spring Coworking Space Member Survey
“83% of respondents to a survey of coworking space members reported that they are less lonely since they joined a coworking space.” —Spring Coworking Space Member Survey
Sources:
https://www.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work/2019
https://www.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work/2018
https://usefyi.com/remote-work-report/
https://www.upwork.com/i/future-workforce/fw/2018/
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx
https://blog.avast.com/hubfs/blog-files/Mobile-Workforce-Report-Master.pdf
https://open.buffer.com/state-remote-work-2018/
https://buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2019
http://blog.indeed.com/2018/11/14/remote-work-survey/
https://www.zenefits.com/blog/7-big-statistics-about-the-state-of-flexible-work-arrangements/
https://insights.dice.com/2018/10/02/survey-results-benefits-matter-tech-pros/
https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/productive-working-remotely-top-companies-hiring/
https://go.staplesadvantage.com/rs/896-JNU-907/images/Staples_2015_Workplace_Index.pdf
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4945486/People-work-home-productive.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-12-10/smashing-the-clock
https://www.zenefits.com/blog/7-big-statistics-about-the-state-of-flexible-work-arrangements/
https://www.profitwell.com/blog/remote-teams-growth
https://www.aftercollege.com/cf/2015-annual-survey
https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/telecommuting-sustainability-how-telecommuting-is-a-green-job/
https://workremoteday.wordpress.com/
https://www.smallbizlabs.com/2015/05/coworking-spaces-are-human-spaces.html
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