Remote Work & Return to the Workplace Survey Results Summary
Introduction
It’s been over a year since having to cope with this global pandemic and the difficult decisions companies were forced to make regarding where their workforce should work – at home or remote. Of course, the realistic answer to this question is not so simple and is laden with circumstantial nuances, business culture, and operational needs. However, the winds are changing and companies are curious to know what a common work schedule will look like as these stringent COVID policy guidelines start to ease, as well as the timeline for when these new schedules will take effect.
In order to help answer these questions, NFPCC conducted the 2021 Remote Work & Return to the Workplace Survey in April of 2021. Over 70 companies from all industries, sizes, and types were included in this study. Below is a summary of the results of the survey.
Current Schedule
As of April 1st, 2021, NFPCC asked the participants what their current work schedule is from Monday through Friday. Each respondent made a selection between working remotely (Remote) or working in the office (In Office) for each day of the week. Many respondents noted that certain days were considered optional – that is, an employee had the choice of working remotely or in the office. In this case, NFPCC designated those circumstances as “Remote”.
From the results, the majority of respondents are working remotely all 5 days of the week (44%), followed closely by all respondents working in the office all 5 days of the week (35%), while the remaining respondents reporting a combination of working remotely and in office in the same week.
Future Schedule
The respondents were also asked what their company’s future work schedule would be and when it would be implemented. Although the majority of companies are returning to the office five days a week, the remaining 42% will be embracing some form of schedule that includes working remotely between one and all five business days.
When asked the timeframe of when this future schedule will be implemented, the majority of respondents indicated that they already have or will have before the last quarter of this year.
Conclusion
As long as current projections remain as they are and no other “second wave” pandemic is on the horizon, we can expect a shift in workplace location to adopt working remotely for many companies that had traditionally been working in the office five days a week by the end of fall this year.
