Remote work in 2021 and its future potential

Restriction measures, quarantines and self-isolation have greatly impacted the way we work in the last year. Will the Covid-19 pandemic change the way we work in the long term? 
Executives say they have accelerated the deployment of digitization and automation during the pandemic. As business has been shifting to digital workflows over the past months, all real-time communication channels have become reliant on video conferencing.Telehealth has been accelerated by the outbreak of COVID-19 that has restricted the ability of patients to see doctors. The healthcare providers have scaled up the level of healthcare remote work to offer services to patients at home.
From the beginning of 2020, remote work expectations and trends have changed as healthcare workers have embraced technology and innovation. 11% of consumers used telehealth in 2019 and the trend increased to 46% in 2020. Here are the more detailed statistics on this trend.

Remote worker productivity

Pre-employee engagements such as conducting online interviews and new employee orientation have proved to be successful. Remote workers are productive but not in all situations.
According to an Upwork report, 22.5% of managers in a survey said that remote work productivity had decreased. In contrast, 32.2% of hiring managers said that there was an increase in productivity as a result of remote working since 2020.

According to research by Stanford, employee performance increased by 22% as a result of remote working. Mercer, an HR consulting firm, surveyed 800 employers. According to 94% of the surveyed employers, work productivity either increased or remained constant since workers started working from home.

Remote work and the environment

As mentioned on essay help UK, telecommuting reduces the need for physical presence at the workplace, which means fewer vehicles on the road. Findings by the EPA in the USA reveal that 28% of the greenhouse gas emissions are due to transportation effects. Based on these statistics, light-duty vehicles contribute to 59% of the emissions while heavy-duty and medium vehicles contribute to 23% of the emissions.

According to custom papers, fewer vehicles as of now and in the future may significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions which is good for the environment. The transportation infrastructure has been impacted less as a result of remote working.

Employees and returning to the office

A survey on a team of 9000 employees in six countries was conducted and it revealed that 72% of those employees prefer to use a hybrid remote-office model. Only 12% said they prefer to work from an office. Given the choice, 13% said they would prefer to always work remotely.
In 2020, a similar survey was conducted by PWC, targeting 1.200 office workers in the US and 120 executives. 73% of the surveyed executives said that remote work was successful. 72% of the surveyed workers said that they would prefer to work for two days remotely even after returning to the office full-time. Only 32% of the workers preferred permanent home-working.

How long remote working will continue

Remote work may continue trending at least in the next ten years. Upwork conducted a survey involving 1,500 hiring managers. The survey revealed that as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, 61.9% of companies were planning to engage their workers in remote working currently and in the future.

The same report predicts that at least 36.2 million employees will be working from home by the year 2025, representing an 87% increase from the pre-pandemic period. The Global Workplace Analytics predicts that given a chance, 75 million W2 employees could work remotely.

Global Workplace Analytics also predicts that by the end of 2021, 25%-30% of employees will work remotely for many days a week. The trend of remote work is expected to continue in 2021 and beyond.

Conclusion

Remote working under telehealth is expected to gain momentum in the coming years. The above statistics reveal the state of remote work regarding productivity, impact or remote working to the environment, the desire of employees to go back to the office, and remote work expectations. There will always be a conflict between those who want to continue working from home and those who desire to go back to the physical working environment.

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