Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, companies have been tasked with finding a way to accommodate work from home and the age of Cloud Computing has helped enable Remote Work. Whilst the pandemic was unexpected, the shift to “WFH” was not, and the situation simply sped up the shift to the age of Remote Working.
Careersaas is an online job search site that scrapes and indexes millions of jobs a month, and our platform categorizes these positions into different genres – one of which is the Remote genre. Using a carefully crafted custom algorithm, Careersaas is able to identify from a job posting’s verbiage if a role has any Remote requirements, and we also are able to monitor the types of positions that a company posts to understand how open to working from home a firm may be. We even developed our own algorithm called the WFH Ranking that scores a company from 1 to 100 according to a member of staff’s opportunity to work at home.
In 2020, according to a report from Hiringlab, in January 2020 2.5% of positions had a remote component, but now this stands at approximately 7% in 2022. This does not take account of the move to the “Hybrid” model of work, which allows working from home or working from the office both, and is not necessarily considered a fully remote position.
An article recently posted on The Ladders suggests that nearly 25% of positions in the USA will be remote from 2023, and that is despite a number of companies suggesting that they will want to bring staff back to the office. Companies such as Tesla have expressed dissatisfaction at allowing staff to fully work from home, and have been less open to a fully remote workforce.
What does this mean for Companies going forward?
A recent survey suggests that Remote Workers actually end up working more than those members of staff that report to the office, with the figure of 1.4 days per month mentioned as the amount of time a “WFH’er” commits to work in comparison to an office bound worker. This is a staggering statistic; but largely explained by the lack of home to the office travel, and also in part due to Zoom and remote conferencing being a more important part of a worker’s day.
The message is largely still the same for companies who want to succeed with the Remote or the Hybrid model. Think carefully about your employees, as opposed to revenue targets or other financial goals. Work life balance remains key for successful staff in 2022, just as it did prior to the COVID pandemic. A surprising statistic gathered by recruitment company Robert Half and published in an article earlier this year, said that as much as half of a company’s workforce would begin looking for a new job should they be forced to switch from remote to the office now that the pandemic has died down.
Economic downturn
Economic data and rising inflation continues to suggest that a tough recession lies ahead. The Fed, under the watchful gaze of chairman Jerome Powell, continues to take a hawkish view with rising interest rates, and this has started to stifle economic growth. That being said, one variable that continues to grow is the job market. Undoubtedly, recruitment firms are amongst the first to be impacted by a recession, but the signs so far suggest the labor market remains strong. How long will this last? This is currently unclear. Initial earnings reports from the likes of Amazon have not been as expected, so the signs are that consumers are starting to be mindful of expenditure in an inflationary environment.
It is also very plausible that the job market is so strong, because companies are frantically looking to stay current with their remote work offering. As big firms such as Tesla bring staff back to the market, this presents an opportunity for smaller companies with lighter budgets to offer more in the way of benefits around remote work. Small companies should consider this as part of their hiring policy; a remote or hybrid environment continues to shine in this current economic climate, and while jobseekers are looking for other benefits these days such as training and learning, as well as working for a company committed to the environment and corporate social responsibility, companies who are open to “WFH” are the ones that are currently succeeding.