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***New research alert*** it is no surprise that remote work has shot up during the pandemic. But will it lead to permanent changes in behavior? In my new paper out today, I provide evidence that it will. https://content-static.upwork.com/blog/uploads/sites/6/2020/05/26131624/Upwork_EconomistReport_FWR_052020.pdf
The research uses two waves of a survey of hiring managers: one in late 2019, and one this April. This is very useful for two reasons. First, it’s pre and post pandemic. Second, it reflects the views of the actual decision makers around remote work: hiring managers.
We ask about current remote work utilization and how the great remote work experiment is going so far. Unsurprisingly, we see a huge uptick in remote work. Overall, more than half are working remote today, up from 13.2% in our 2019 survey.
This rapid increase in remote work is not news. But what is news, is that 56% of hiring managers say remote work is going better than expected. Less than 1 on 10 say it’s going worse than expected.
While some worry about the effect that remote work may have on productivity, more hiring managers thought it was increasing productivity than decreasing it. And this is not the workers perspective, which may be self-serving, but management.
Finally, what does this mean for the future of remote work? We asked the same question in the pre and post covid survey: how much of your workforce will be remote in 5 years? Expected growth rate of remote work has DOUBLED
In 5 years hiring managers expect more than one in five workers to be fully remote. This has significant implications. Upwork has helped companies go remote for two decades, and we know it produces big benefits. Many are learning this now. <The end>
