Figuring out the future of remote work

Emerging from a full year of a global pandemic, businesses with remote workers are increasingly being faced with a question: Do we bring our employees back into the office?

The Partnership for New York City’s recent assessment of Manhattan’s estimated 1 million office personnel found that:

About half are expected to return to the office by September, but most would have at least some time working remotely. And 9% aren’t expected to return at all.

This could have a massive ripple effect on Long Island.

In nextLI’s COVID-19 survey taken in July 2020, we found that slightly more than a third of our respondents expected to be working from home a lot more.

However, 62% of our respondents expressed interest in working remotely if allowed to by their workplace.

Nearly half of our respondents believe that remote work would have a positive impact on our region, and only 19% believed there would be a negative impact.

In our January 2021 survey, we found that nearly half of our respondents are working from home or in a hybrid/mixed working environment.

Additionally, nearly a third said they would refuse or leave a job if they were required to work 100% of the time at a location outside of their own, like an office.

The Ford Motor Company offered all its white-collar employees who are able to work remotely the option to do so, an estimated 30,000 according to CBS. Microsoft, meanwhile, is offering its employees the option to return to the office.

Globally, similar sentiment seems to be holding strong. Microsoft’s global Work Trend Index found that 73% of employees want flexible remote work options.

At the same time, their survey found that 67% of employees want more in-person collaboration.

As vaccination increases, the question of remote work’s future will be even more pressing as businesses balance a return to normalcy while prioritizing safety.