Technology professionals have fully embraced remote work and now strongly prefer it, even in comparison to a hybrid workplace setting.
Sixty percent of tech professionals ranked 100% remote work as their most desired workplace setting compared to 53% in 2021. Beyond that, nearly 90% of respondents indicated the opportunity to work remotely is important to their decision to join another organization.
Regardless of your current work setup/setting, how desirable is working in the following settings?
Regardless of your current work setup/setting, how desirable is working in the following settings?
How important is the opportunity to work remotely at least three days per week in choosing your next role/organization?
Benefits and Shortcomings of Remote Work
How technology professionals rank the benefits of remote work gives us insight into why remote work has become so important to them. “More cost effective” (76%) and “more flexibility/schedule control” (69%) were respondents’ most commonly indicated remote work benefits. “More cost effective” (up 17%) and “healthier for my lifestyle” (up 28%) both increased significantly from the last time we asked tech professionals this question. FlexJobs has reported that the average remote worker could save $6,000 a year or more with the reduction of commuting costs, wardrobe additions, eating out and more — and considering rising inflation and an uncertain market, it’s no wonder cost effectiveness is top of mind for tech professionals.
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be benefits to working remotely vs. working in an office?
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be benefits to working remotely vs. working in an office?
Though technology professionals prefer remote work, they do still recognize shortcomings. “Hinders working relationships with colleagues” has steadily increased its lead as a main concern since 2020 and responses for “hinders working relationships with my boss” also increased from 24% in 2021 to 28% in the latest survey data.
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be shortcomings to working remotely vs. working in an office?
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be shortcomings to working remotely vs. working in an office?
There are clear benefits of working remotely to technology professionals, and when considering incentivizing employees to return to an office, it’s best to keep their top-rated benefits in mind. They won’t want to give these up.
Building and maintaining relationships across organizations and even within teams has been a difficult hurdle to clear since the pandemic forced most of the world into remote work. However, now that remote and hybrid work are clearly here to stay, consider investing in employee engagement initiatives, mentoring programs and additional communication channels that cultivate community — if you haven’t already. After all, better connected organizations often have stronger employee morale and higher retention because of their focus on employee engagement.
In fact, connection within organizations is so important that half of the items Gallup’s annual Employee Engagement Survey — considered a “north star” for businesses around the world — evaluates are related to how connected employees feel at work, such as if there is someone at work who encourages their development, for example.
Remote and Flexible Work by Age Group
Remote work is equally important to all age groups now. At least 80% of respondents indicated remote work is somewhat, very or extremely important across all age groups and more than half of respondents across all age groups indicated a preference for 100% remote work (five days of remote work per week).
There were, however, some distinctions between age groups when it came to perceived benefits and shortcomings. Many of the distinctions align with life stages each age group might be in currently — whether they have kids at home or their living space, for instance.
Technology professionals between 45 and 54 years old indicated “fewer distractions” as a benefit of remote work more than any other age group while those in younger age groups (25-34 and 35-44) responded more readily to “no defined workspace” as a shortcoming of remote work. These results align with the likelihood that tech professionals in the 45-54 age group may not have kids at home and those in the 25-44 age groups could be living in smaller spaces like apartments that do not allow for a dedicated work-from-home setup.
While tech professionals 25-34 years old experienced the greatest increase in preference for 100% remote work, growing from 46% in 2021 to 58% in 2022, they were also more likely to cite “lack of career development/easier to get overlooked” as a shortcoming to working outside an office.
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be benefits to working remotely vs. working in an office?
Click the different tabs to view results by age group.
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be benefits to working remotely vs. working in an office?
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be shortcomings to working remotely vs. working in an office?
Which, if any, of the following do you consider to be shortcomings to working remotely vs. working in an office?
Understanding how technology professionals in different age groups perceive benefits and shortcomings of remote work can help you attract and retain tech talent more effectively by catering to preferences or alleviating pain points.
With tech professionals working in their own spaces, which may include roommates, pets or family members, and may be limited in square footage, understanding life stages and being empathetic to employees’ needs has become more important.
For instance, knowing that younger tech professionals may not have a dedicated workspace — and that there is still a subset who do desire in-office work part of the time — and providing them with access to a coworking space if they are not near an office could influence them to join or stay with your company. Mentoring programs and well-defined career paths with opportunities for training, education and upskilling could also help younger tech professionals overcome their perceived lack of career development. Though 73% of employers reported offering training and education as a benefit to employees, only 44% of tech professionals feel they receive it (with 72% indicating training and education is an important employment benefit to them). This points to a need for better alignment between employers and tech professionals on what themes and topics they want to learn about.
Remote Work Policies
More than two-thirds of employers surveyed indicated they have changed office policies in the last year by adding both remote and flexible work arrangements. Reasons for making changes were evenly split between employee requests/feedback, C-suite/leadership and industry trends. It makes sense that employers adjusted remote work policies to accommodate needs of their employees and trends in the labor market, but that doesn’t mean they are fully embracing 100% remote work as a standard policy.
Has your organization changed its office policies on remote and/or flexible work arrangements in the past year?
What primarily influenced the decision to change remote/flexible work arrangements?
Has your organization changed its office policies on remote and/or flexible work arrangements in the past year?
What primarily influenced the decision to change remote/flexible work arrangements?
Return-to-Office Trends
Despite this strengthening of preference for 100% remote work, organizations are doing their best to entice employees to return to the office even for just a few days each week (if they aren’t mandating it). Almost 70% of employers surveyed are focusing future plans on a hybrid work environment and are offering incentives to employees to return to the office on a regular basis. The problem is the incentives employers are currently offering don’t align with what technology professionals want most.
Monetary incentive tops the list of things tech professionals indicate employers could offer for them to consider returning to the office at least three days per week, followed by flexible work hours. However, with 8 in 10 tech professionals indicating that they are satisfied with their current remote work status, even these incentives will have to be extra appealing.
Gap in incentives technology professionals want and employers are offering
Interestingly, 61% of respondents in this year’s survey believe that where they work (hybrid/remote/in-office) and when they work (flexible schedules) are equally important. This presents an opportunity for organizations committed to having employees work in an office: they can either compromise or, in a best-case scenario, offer complete flexibility on the hours technology professionals spend in physical office locations.
With two-thirds of employers indicating they have upgraded or reconfigured existing physical office spaces and 40% saying they’ve added new physical office locations since 2020, it’s likely employers are weighing the sunk cost of office improvements and expansions with the risk of losing tech professionals by mandating a return to the office, and the cost of recruiting and hiring new talent to replace them.
The bottom line is organizations that are mandating employees return to the office, especially 100% of the time, risk losing key talent. With a strong preference for remote work and plenty of remote work opportunities, tech professionals have their pick of organizations willing to offer them a similar role that is entirely remote. While in some cases in-office work is necessary, consider where you can be flexible, especially with scheduling, and consider, if possible, appealing to tech professionals’ top-ranked incentive of monetary or other financial compensation. It’s another cost to add to the budget, but may end up being more affordable than losing key talent that may be very difficult to replace.
4-Day Work Week
While nearly 6 in 10 employers have discussed moving to a four-day work week, according to our survey, the likelihood of actually implementing a four-day work week in 2023 is a mixed bag with 33% not likely to switch, 30% somewhat likely to switch and 38% very or extremely likely to move to a four-day work week in 2023.