A survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Kintone found that 3 in 4 employees would like to work from home permanently after the pandemic. 48% of employees say a company’s policy on remote work is now one of their biggest priorities as a workplace perk. Having flexible policies is so important that the survey also reveals that 72% wouldn’t even consider working for a company that didn’t offer any type of work-from-home policies.
More and more companies continue to implement flexible measurements in their workplace. However, despite the changes, other companies are still reluctant to offer work-from-home arrangements to employees. And this could highly impact employees’ engagement and retention levels as a new survey found that almost 75% of Americans want to work full-time from home.
Remote Work vs. The Office
As companies continue to define their remote work plans, employees show the importance of having flexible policies in the workplace. In cases such as Apple, where the company wanted most of them to return to the office, employees asked the company to allow remote work. Such was the case of Google and many other companies that still desired to have an office-centric based culture.
OnePoll, on behalf of Kintone, conducted a survey of nearly 2,000 Americans who are still working remotely during the pandemic. These are the main results from the survey that highlight the importance of companies understanding how relevant remote work is for employees:
- 75% want to work from home forever.
- 48% say a company’s policy on remote work is their biggest workplace priority.
- 72% wouldn’t even consider working for a company that didn’t offer flexible work-from-home policies.
- 72% don’t miss a full-time office setting.
- 76% would jump at a job offer if this had the opportunity of working from home permanently
- 71% have a better work-life balance when WFH.
However, remote work also has drawbacks that impact employees, and overall, a company’s performance. The survey reveals these are some of the main obstacles about a remote workplace:
- 35% of teams didn’t have the right office equipment
- 36% have difficulties communicating with their coworkers
- 34% have many distractions
- 22% of employees expressed dissatisfaction with their company meeting employee needs while WFH.
Every major transformation like this comes with hurdles and uncertainties. In the end, the benefits of happier, more satisfied employees will justify the efforts to address these challenges head on. Employers should create policies and find solutions to meet these concerns and strengthen communications so that remote and hybrid work experiences will only improve in the post-pandemic era. Dave Landa, CEO of Kintone