To meet shifting employee priorities, flexible work arrangements are more critical than ever to maintain relevance in such a competitive job atmosphere. While remote work comes with many benefits to the employee and employer alike, it adds challenges and complexity to an already complex space. Employers need sophisticated technology to ensure they know where their employees are, to ensure compliance for all mobile employees, and to ensure employee satisfaction remains high.
With a new normal brought on by the pandemic, employees want flexibility to work remotely.
At the onset of the pandemic’s third year, employees are slowly returning to the office, but at levels far behind that of pre-pandemic life. The traditional idea of “office life” is unlikely to come back, and it seems few employees are interested in this anyway.
- 94% of employees agree that they should be able to work from anywhere, so long as they get their work done. This flexibility to work anywhere is among the top drivers of an exceptional employee experience.
- 48% of employees feel that remote work policies are in place just to make requests easier to reject.
- 91% of employees are comfortable with their employer knowing their location at the city level. Employees are comfortable being tracked for the right reasons.
Flexible work arrangements are vital for employee retention and hiring.
The Great Resignation is not just a buzzword: 29% of employees changed jobs in 2021, and 34% are planning to resign in 2022. What is driving this exodus?
- 41% of employees say flexibility to work from home is or was a reason to change jobs.
- 96% of employees rank flexibility in working arrangements as a key factor when finding a new employer.
With these kinds of numbers, flexibility is no longer optional to remain competitive — it is essential. And enforcing outdated norms may increase employee turnover: among those required to return to the office full time, 64% say this makes them more likely to look for a new job.
HR professionals often don’t know where their employees are working. Most employees (66%) do not report all days working outside their home state/country to HR. Thus, it is no surprise that — compared to last year — HR professionals are significantly less likely to be confident in knowing where their employees are working. 40% of HR professionals discovered employees working from outside their home state or country, but many more additional employees likely went unnoticed. Despite this, HR professionals are overwhelmingly confident (90%) that employees will perfectly self-report when working out of state/ country.
Remote work is the future of work — and that’s a good thing for companies.
HR professionals largely feel that remote work has provided their organization with tangible benefits, such as increased productivity, reduced costs, and better employee retention. These benefits are only expected to increase in 2022. And technology, in particular, is becoming a key resource to manage a distributed workforce: 88% of organizations with a remote work policy are investing in remote work tooling and technology.