By: Malia McCabeSeptember 17, 2020
COVID-19 has impacted all sectors of the global economy and continues to change the way we live and work. It’s undeniable that businesses and employees will have to adopt to the new normal in 2020 and beyond.
Companies are already changing the way they do business and 74% of CFO’s plan to permanently shift their employees to work remotely post COVID-19 according to Gartner.
What if we told you that the change has already happened and 79% of full time employees in United States are now working remotely?!
We surveyed over one thousand full time US employees that earn over $25,000 to find out what percentage is working remotely as a result of COVID-19, how happy and productive they are and the impact remote work has had on their finances.
Below you will find the key findings of this survey study.
Outlined above are the key findings of the survey study we conducted. The sections below will outline and break down the data behind each key finding and the additional insight we were able to uncover through our study. The methodology and demographics are discussed at the end.
You can skip to each section by clicking on one of the buttons below:
This section will cover the data pertaining to employee happiness among those who have shifted to working remotely versus those that have continued coming into work during COVID-19. We uncovered some interesting insight about both group of employees and you can view the detailed findings below.
This section will cover the data pertaining to employee productivity among those who have shifted to working remotely versus those that have continued coming into work during COVID-19. We uncovered some interesting insight about both groups of employees and you can view the detailed findings below.
This section will cover data pertaining to financial ramifications of remote work among those who have shifted to working remotely versus those that have continued coming into work during COVID-19. We uncovered some interesting insight about both group of employees and you can view the detailed findings below.
Millennials are an important demographic to highlight as baby boomers retire and millennial employees dominate the make up of the work force across United States in 2020 and beyond. We isolated millennials in our data (age demographic: 25-34) to highlight the impact that the shift to remote work due to COVID-19 has had on their happiness, productivity and money.
For the purpose of this study, we only surveyed full time employees (excluding self employed) who earned $25,000 or more annually. The reason we only surveyed those earning $25,000 or more was to omit employees that earn below minimum wage but who are still employed full time (ie: restaurant employees) and can’t work remotely due to the inherent make up of their job responsibilities.
The demographic composition of the 1070 individuals surveyed is as follows.
We then asked a different set of questions depending on whether surveyors answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the question of, “Has Your Job Shifted To Remote Arrangement As A Result Of Covid-19”.
This was done to find out the key insights in the areas of happiness, productivity and money from employees who have started working remotely as a result of COVID-19 versus those who have had to continue coming into work during the pandemic.
The survey was conducted through SurveyMonkey services.
Based on the data we gathered, remote work is the way of the future – at least to some degree. Employees are happier, more productive and save more money when working remotely. It remains to be seen how businesses, small and large, incorporate remote work into their corporate structures.
Here are a few resources pertaining to remote work that employers as well as employees may find useful:
The best part about this survey is people saying their co-workers are the biggest distraction at work. I can relate…
Thanks for putting this together guys. The data is interesting and does tell a strong story to support remote work. I think it would also be interesting to see the data parsed according to employee position within an organization (ie: manager vs entry level).
Thank you for executing this survey and sharing the results so openly – much appreciated!