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Remote and hybrid teams have different operational needs than strictly in-person teams. That includes expense considerations like:
To find answers to these questions, finance teams should model various possible scenarios to chart the best path forward for their business.
But while remote work has proven to be effective over the last three years—with employees overwhelmingly reporting higher job satisfaction and productivity since working from home—many employers are still enforcing return to office mandates.
When it comes to these businesses’ bottom line, this choice may be hurting them more than they realize, as remote work brings with it substantial savings to overhead costs.
In this article, we’ll explore current trends for remote work and what to take away from them for your own business and workforce planning in 2024 and beyond.
While remote work initially exploded in popularity during the pandemic, levels have since cooled a bit, most likely due to COVID protocols ending, allowing employees to return to the office. Still, more businesses are opting for remote work now than they were before the pandemic, and their primary reasoning is cost-saving.
1. As of September 2022, 27.5% of private-sector businesses had employees working remotely part- or full-time. This is around 2.5 million businesses. (BLS)
2. Prior to the pandemic, 23.3% of businesses had employees who teleworked at least part of the time. (BLS)
3. In 2022, there were fewer businesses with at least some of their employees working remotely—16.4%, down from 29.8% the previous year. (BLS)
4. The percentage of fully-remote private businesses stayed roughly the same from 2021 (10.3%) to 2022 (11.1%). (BLS)
5. By September 2022, the percent of private companies with little to no remote workers was 72.5%, up from 60.1% the previous year. (BLS)
6. As of July 2022, only 0.7% of private businesses used expanding remote work opportunities to attract fresh talent. (BLS)
7. In July 2022, 2.4% of private businesses hired one or more employees who will work fully remotely. (BLS)
8. From August–September 2022, 3.1% of private businesses had at least one fully remote position vacancy. (BLS)
9. Only 6% of U.S. employees in remote-capable jobs prefer to work fully onsite, while 34% prefer to be fully remote and 59% prefer hybrid arrangements. (Gallup)
10. Among 1,000 professionals who responded to a survey, 65% whose benefit packages had changed after moving to remote work were more satisfied with their jobs. (Paychex)
11. 79% of surveyed employees said that working outside of the office caused their work/life balance to improve. (Cisco)
12. 41% of survey respondents said remote and in-office employees wouldn’t have equal opportunities for engagement and promotion, while 43% felt they’d be less likely to be promoted when working remotely and 57% said in-office employees would see faster career growth. (Cisco)
13. Commercial office values are projected to be 39% lower in 2029 than they were in 2019, directly tied to the remote work shift. (National Bureau of Economic Research)
14. Housing prices in the U.S. rose 24% between November 2019 and November 2021, and remote work can be credited with driving more than 60% of the increase. (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)
Much of the focus on remote work revolves around tech companies, but they aren’t the only ones shifting the way they think about employment.
Collaborative cloud-based technologies have enabled industries that previously depended solely on in-person work to explore new ways of operating—saving them time and money.
The percentage of remote workers fluctuates depending on their line of work. But it’s not just white-collar jobs that are moving off-campus. Here are some statistics illustrating the diversity of industries that have shifted partly to remote work models.
15. 80% of financial services companies have implemented off-campus work models, with 41% favoring hybrid and 39% preferring fully remote. (Scoop)
16. 66% of banks offer flexible working arrangements, including hybrid or remote work. (Scoop)
17. Banks are the least likely of all financial institutions to offer fully-flexible work, with just 18% doing so. (Scoop)
18. As of March 2023, 32% of financial service firms allow employees to choose how they want to work. (Scoop)
19. Around 24% of all manufacturing workers telework at least some of the time. (BLS)
20. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that approximately 7% of all manufacturing work in the region was done remotely in August 2022—twice the pre-pandemic level. (Federal Reserve Bank of New York)
21. As of September 2022, higher education had the third-highest percentage of teleworkers among all industries, at 46%. (BLS)
22. Approximately 23% of health care workers telework at least some of the time. (BLS)
23. Doctors who use remote technology for virtual visits surged from 14% in 2016 to 80% in 2022. (Strategic Market Research)
24. More than one-quarter of the US population is expected to use remote patient monitoring devices by 2025—that’s nearly 71 million people. (Strategic Market Research)
25. Among listings on Idealist, the largest nonprofit job board in the U.S., fully remote, nonprofit jobs receive nine times more applications than on-site jobs, while hybrid jobs receive twice as many. (Council of Nonprofits)
26. Only 19% of nonprofit jobs listed on Idealist are remote, compared to 38% hybrid and 43% in-person, meaning there’s a large talent gap for on-site and hybrid jobs, while remote ones are extremely competitive. (Council of Nonprofits)
27. Smaller nonprofits tend to employ more remote workers, with 19-27% of employees in organizations with 10 or fewer employees working remotely, compared to 13-23% of employees in organizations with 1,000 or more employees. (Council of Nonprofits)
28. As of September 2022, professional services had the second-highest percentage of teleworkers among all industries, at 49%. (BLS)
29. Before the pandemic, only 14% of field teams from surveyed companies worked remotely frequently, 34% did so occasionally and 52% never did. (OpenSpace)
30. After the pandemic, surveyed companies reported that 58% of field teams frequently worked remotely, and 25% did so occasionally. (OpenSpace)
31. Companies reported that 80% of field teams working remotely were equally or more productive than when on-site. (OpenSpace)
32. Among respondents who previously never allowed field teams to work remotely, 87% said they’d allow hybrid work to continue in the future after seeing productive results. (OpenSpace)
33. 35% of respondents lauded remote technology for enabling their teams to access top job candidates, and 20% said they could now put their best teams on more jobs than was previously possible due to lower travel times. (OpenSpace)
One immediately apparent takeaway from the rise of remote work is the gap between employees' and employers' thoughts about remote work.
Research from Microsoft shows that leaders and workers don’t agree on real productivity levels. With hiring beginning to stabilize, companies will have to start competing once again for top talent, suggesting that employers must meet prospective workers’ demands like the availability of hybrid or remote work.
34. While 87% of employees believe they’re productive while working remotely, only 12% of surveyed leaders felt the same. (Microsoft)
35. 3 in 5 businesses surveyed noted a top reason for implementing hybrid or remote work is the health and well-being of their employees. (Okta)
36. 3 in 4 employees who responded to a global survey felt that their organization was not “very prepared” for a future that relies more heavily on hybrid and remote work. (Cisco)
Remote productivity can be difficult to manage. As the lines between work and home get blurred, this can lead to symptoms like burnout. Elsewhere, productivity theater (or employees engaging in nonessential work to appear busy) leads to a glut of nonessential administrative tasks filling up time to create the appearance of being busy.
One thing is for certain: the flexibility of remote work has big implications for overall productivity. These stats illustrate how remote work can both positively or negatively impact employee productivity.
37. 60% of survey respondents believe their productivity increased due to their switch to hybrid or remote. (Cisco)
38. 30% of respondents don’t believe their manager trusts them to be productive when working remotely. (Cisco)
39. Of more than 28,000 survey respondents, 62% said that their access to remote work correlates with their decision to stay at or leave a job. (Cisco)
40. Access to tech support is a top priority for successful remote workers, according to 77% of survey respondents. (Cisco)
41. 66% of respondents said flexibility in their work schedule was the most important element of a remote work model. (Cisco)
42. Almost 6 in 10 respondents self-reported an improvement in their job skills and knowledge due to switching to remote work. (Cisco)
43. 62% of respondents felt career-limited by regular connectivity issues, while 42% believed those issues created a negative perception of hybrid and remote employees. (Cisco)
44. In the two years from February 2020 through March 2022, the number of weekly Microsoft Teams meetings increased by 153%. (Microsoft)
45. Overlapping meetings where attendees are double-booked for remote check-ins increased 46% per person in 2022. (Microsoft)
46. From 2020 to 2022, acceptance rates for remote meeting invites using Microsoft Teams increased by only 3%, while declines and “maybes” skyrocketed by 84% and 216%, respectively, indicating possible meeting fatigue. (Microsoft)
47. At least 42% of Microsoft Teams meeting participants multitask in meetings. (Microsoft)
48. Among surveyed employers who updated their employee benefits packages after shifting to remote work models, 63% reported increased employee productivity. (Paychex)
When given a chance to choose, most employees prefer a hybrid work arrangement to a fully remote or in-person one.
Hybrid arrangements can solve many employee hang-ups with remote and in-person work—whether by avoiding loneliness or time management issues associated with remote work or feeling less pressured by the company culture of in-person environments.
Is a hybrid arrangement more effective for your diverse teams than a remote or in-person one? Spoiler alert: It probably is.
49. 39% of global knowledge workers—those who handle information—are expected to work hybrid schedules by the end of 2023. This increased from 2022, when 37% of knowledge workers held hybrid jobs. (Gartner)
50. 76% of workers surveyed said that working a hybrid model helped them save money. (Cisco)
51. 37% of hybrid workers voiced concerns about a lack of connection with their colleagues, compared to 45% of fully-remote ones. (The Conference Board)
52. Layoffs are less common for organizations with hybrid policies than fully remote ones, at 25% and 33%, respectively. (The Conference Board)
53. Teams that can define their own hybrid work policies together are the most engaged in their work, with 46% reporting high engagement compared to 34% for those whose policies are defined by leadership. (Gallup)
Cybersecurity is a major concern companies should consider when determining how to enable their employees to work remotely—or whether they should at all.
Without centralized data management protocols, data security isn’t as tight, and companies are more susceptible to cyberthreats. Let these statistics be a reminder that no hybrid or remote work model is complete without the proper security protocols.
54. 45% of businesses surveyed said that of all the challenges brought on by hybrid and remote work shifts, cybersecurity was one of the biggest. (Okta)
55. 84% of survey respondents said that proper networking infrastructure is crucial for an effective remote working environment—and 32% didn’t feel that their company currently has that strong infrastructure. (Cisco)
56. 78% of surveyed respondents feel cybersecurity is critical for safe, effective remote work, while 35% felt they didn’t have the right measures to create a secure work environment. (Cisco)
57. More than half of companies surveyed (51%) plan to increase their IT and cybersecurity budgets in 2024. (Spiceworks Ziff Davis)
58. IT spending from 2022 to 2023 increased 12.6%, outpacing the rate of inflation at around 8.3% during the same period. (Spiceworks Ziff Davis)
Leveraging remote work opportunities can have long-lasting benefits for businesses. Specifically, remote work speaks to what employees want and can help companies increase productivity and efficiency while minimizing costs.
Here’s a deeper look at where these revenue gains and cost savings come from:
Working from home can lead to double-digit productivity gains. But beyond this massive boost in employee output, remote work can help you retain employees longer.
Remote work is also essential for fueling DEI efforts, as research shows remote jobs help companies bring in more women, people of color and people with disabilities. A survey from Slack’s research arm found that 57% of working mothers prefer to work remotely. It also found that Black and Latino knowledge workers preferred remote or hybrid work arrangements at higher rates than their white peers.
Running a business on-site entails significant overhead costs. If every remote-capable job in the U.S. allowed employees to work from home just 50% of the time, it would result in over $700 billion in annual savings—or around $2,000 to $6,500 per employee.
These savings aren’t just hypothetical, either; companies are realizing savings in real-time with remote and hybrid work. According to research from Global Workplace Analytics:
Rent, relocation costs, facilities maintenance, equipment and even taxes are all areas where can companies maximize cost savings by switching to a remote work model.
If you’ve run headcount planning models and come up short on skills with your existing staff, it might be time to consider changing up your work model to close the gaps.
Looking at LinkedIn job postings alone, workers want more remote jobs than are available. As of October 2022, 50% of total applications are submitted for remote jobs, while those jobs only amount to 15% of listings. Companies can gain exposure to top applicants from nonlocal markets by swapping to a remote-first work model.
In addition to accessing a wider talent pool, remote work can help reduce the cost of employee turnover by increasing job satisfaction.
Some 93% of employees voice preferences for hybrid or remote work opportunities. This means that if you restrict the availability of these work models, you might risk having a significantly higher percentage of employee attrition.
According to management consulting firm Gallup, the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times that employee’s annual salary. It also estimated that US businesses collectively lose $1 trillion due to voluntary turnover.
The remote work boom may have cooled since the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean it’s going away. In fact, these work-from-home statistics declare that remote is here to stay.
Now’s the perfect time to capitalize on a working setup that makes your employees happy and shaves down your bottom line.
However you intend to ride the remote work wave, it’s essential that your approach is tailored to the needs of your unique business. With support for OpEx and workforce planning, Vena’s complete planning platform can help you model the potential impact of remote work for your budget with ease.
