SAN DIEGO, April 2, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Over half of
U.S. employees (75 million workers) hold jobs and have
responsibilities that could be performed, at least in part, from
home. More than 80% say they would work from home (WFH) if they
could yet, but less than 4% of employees do so half-time or more
[American Community Survey]. While the majority of employers offer
the option to some of their employees, only 7% offer it to all or
most [Bureau of Labor Statistics]. That is, until now.
Kate Lister, president of Global
Workplace Analytics, who has been studying remote work trends and
providing workplace strategy advice to employers for more than a
decade, predicts the recent crisis will be a tipping point for
employee work-from-home programs. She forecasts 25M to 30M U.S.
employees will regularly work from home within the next two years
(currently only 5M WFH half-time or
more).
"From the employer side, there is greater recognition of the
overall business benefits of having robust work-from-home
capability and readiness," says Pat
Turnbull, President of Workplace IQX, a consultancy focused
on helping businesses grow through strategic, organizational and
workplace transformation.
"From the employee side, the genie is out of the bottle," says
Lister. "Having tasted the experience, most will not want to give
it up."
Other accelerants, predicts Lister, will include:
- Increased scrutiny around disaster preparedness from
investors/shareholders
- Reduced fear and resistance from managers once they've had the
chance to WFH themselves
- Greater awareness amongst leadership of the WFH potential for
reducing real estate and travel costs, particularly given the
threat of another recession
- Greater societal awareness of the environmental benefits of
reduced commuter and business travel on sustainability once they've
seen the actual impact WFM can have
"This crisis has forced employers to do, inside a week, what
Fortune 500 companies typically take months or even years to
roll-out across their global portfolios," says Dr. Anita Kamouri,
Co-Founder of Iometrics, who has been helping organizations succeed
with remote work practices and next-generation workplace strategies
for two decades.
"Organizational, technological, and cultural change takes time,"
says Kate North, VP of Workplace
Strategy for Colliers International. "But suddenly, my clients are
finding themselves in the deep end of the work-from-home-readiness
pool," says North whose perspective comes from twenty years of
experience in workplace design and strategy.
"We find ourselves, unfortunate as the circumstances may be,
faced with an unprecedented opportunity to study the work-from-home
experience," says Lister. That's why we, together with Iometrics
and the Workplace Evolutionaries (WE, an international community of
practice within the 25,000-member International Facilities
Management Association) have just launched a global survey to
better understand and predict what the recent crisis will mean to
the future of how and where people will work.
Results of the Global Work-from-Home Experience Survey will help
community and organizational leaders:
- Identify what is and isn't working for people working from
home
- Prioritize strategies for keeping employees productive and
engaged during this crisis
- Anticipate and plan for the changes this experience will have
on how and where people work in the future
Employees can participate in this important research by taking
the Global Work From Home Experience Survey here.
Employers can use the survey with their own employees. More
information about this option and answers to frequently asked
questions is available here.
About the Survey
The Global Work-From-Home Experience Survey was developed and will
be analyzed by workplace thought leaders, Dr. Anita Kamouri
(Co-Founder of Iometrics), and Kate
Lister (President of Global Workplace Analytics). Both have
been involved in work-from-home and strategic workplace research
and consulting for more than a decade. Additional information about
the survey and answers to commonly asked questions is available
here.
The survey is being supported, through distribution to its
members, by global associations including the 25,000-member
International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) and
Workplace Evolutionaries (WE) (a community within IFMA).
Survey results with a minimum statistical confidence level of
95% (p<.05) will be made available to the public.
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For more information contact:
Kate Lister
Kate@GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com
760-703-0377
SOURCE Global Workplace Analytics