Spiceworks Ziff Davis reveals long-term workforce changes, inter-office tensions, forward-looking technology plans, and business opportunities.

Introduction

COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way the world works in many ways.

At the height of the pandemic, with many physical offices shuttered, a large number of employees were forced to work from home. This rush to remote work spurred business investments in technologies to enable a remote workforce and keep businesses operating during the crisis.

Recently, the spread of more transmissible COVID-19 variants has dashed hopes of the pandemic winding down any time soon. As a result, many workers will continue working remotely for the foreseeable future.  

But once it’s finally safe to return to offices, what will the future hold? Remote work went well for many organizations during the pandemic, so now the fundamental question is: What will the new normal look like after COVID-19? 

Now that organizations have had a taste of flexible work arrangements, will there be a strong desire for a return to business as usual, or will office life look completely different going forward?

In May and June of 2021, to better understand the future of work — once organizations and public health officials believe it’s safe to return to physical offices — Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) surveyed 414 IT professionals who manage computer infrastructure and support the technology needs of their coworkers, a role that puts them in the position to know where and how the world will work in the future.

1. Changes to the Remote Workforce

In a July 2020 SWZD study, we recorded that 16% of the workforce was remote before COVID-19 and that 61% of the overall workforce went remote at the height of the public health crisis.

Our latest research indicates that once it’s eventually safe for workers to go back into the office, 25% of the workforce will be remote. In other words, a quarter of the workforce working partially or completely from home means this is far from a passing trend: It’s here to stay in a meaningful way. 

A Spectrum of Remote Work Models

By now, we’re familiar with the narrative of workers moving far from the office — perhaps across the country — while doing the same job remotely. While these profiles make for great stories, our data indicates only 6% of all workers will be fully remote after the pandemic. 

The reality is that most remote employees will operate under a hybrid work model — either because of personal preference or due to the expectation of occasional in-office work. Among the 19% of the workforce that will adopt the hybrid work model, moving to remote locations might make sense, but they would likely want to remain within reasonable commuting distance.

Breakdown of remote work styles following the pandemic (as a percentage of the total workforce):

• 6% fully remote
• 8% mostly in office
• 6% half remote, half in office
• 5% mostly remote

Interestingly, despite workers’ fears, our research found only 7% of companies that allow remote work plan to reduce salaries if remote employees move to an area with a lower cost of living.

2. Personnel Considerations

2.1. IT Professionals’ Opinions on Remote Work

Overall, tech workers’ opinions about remote workers are positive. From a talent and productivity standpoint, most believe organizations benefit from allowing flexible work arrangements.

• 70% of IT professionals think remote workers are equally or more productive than onsite workers in a similar role (66% in the U.S. vs. 82% in the U.K.)
• 53% of IT professionals believe a remote work policy allows companies to hire and retain better talent (vs. only 9% who disagree)

According to IT professionals, most individual contributors (59%) and IT departments (57%) are in favor of remote work, but management is less supportive, especially at an executive level (32%). 

Additionally, there remains a stigma or negative connotation surrounding remote workers in approximately one-third (34%) of companies. This unfavorable sentiment is stronger in companies that don’t have flexible work policies (56%) compared to companies that do allow for flexible work (24%).

On a personal level, 76% of IT professionals would prefer to work remotely, at least some of the time, suggesting that the demand for flexible work options is greater than the supply, at least in the IT department. Perhaps that’s why some IT professionals plan to switch jobs in the future. 

For example, in companies that don’t offer flexible work options, 10% of IT professionals plan to seek new employment. Likely because Millennial IT workers are earlier into their careers and have less established roots than their older peers, these younger IT workers are more likely (14%) to make the switch than Gen X (2%). 

Good news for these tech professionals seeking more flexible work arrangements: Among companies that allow remote work, 27% are more likely to hire non-local talent than before the pandemic.

2.2. Remote Work Interactions

After more than a year of remote work, notable workforce preferences have emerged that business leaders should pay attention to.

According to our survey, 46% of IT professionals say office relationships are an important part of social life. As many workers shift to fully remote or hybrid work arrangements, keeping teams connected will likely be more of a challenge. To ensure cohesiveness amongst teams as in-office interactions become less common, organizations and management should make extra efforts to provide opportunities for socialization among workers that desire it.

When it comes to communication and collaboration at work, technology can certainly help coworkers feel closer, even when they’re physically apart. According to our research, 38% of IT professionals now prefer virtual over face-to-face meetings, with similar rates even in companies that don’t allow for remote work. Evidently, there has been a shift towards new modes of communication during the pandemic, as many embrace video conferencing and business chat apps — which can enhance the meeting experience with interactive features that aren’t readily available in a face-to-face environment.

2.3. The Generation Gap: How Age Influences Attitudes

For some of the insights covered in our report, there exist significant differences among different generations. For example, Millennial IT professionals are much more likely to prefer virtual meetings (43%) over face-to-face meetings than their Boomer peers (27%). 

Additionally, more than one-third of Millennials (35%) and Gen X (36%) believe there’s a stigma around remote workers in their organization, compared to about a fifth of Boomers (22%), even though all three generations have a strong desire to work remotely themselves.

Boomers are also significantly more likely to believe their organization did a good job handling the pandemic (87%) than Millennials (74%).

We also found that the top challenge remote workers have experienced during the pandemic is personal interruptions during work. 

Though, significantly fewer Boomers reported interruptions as their top issue than their younger peers, perhaps because fewer of them live with younger children or roommates. Given lower-than-average homeownership levels among Millennials, there’s also the distinct possibility of loud neighbors blasting their stereo during conference calls.

3. Information Technology Considerations

3.1. Technology Factors Enabling Remote Work

IT has played a big role in enabling the remote work revolution. This is because the world is at an inflection point where technologies have advanced far enough to make working from home as productive as in a dedicated office.

For example, portable computing devices, collaboration/communication software, voice over IP, and video conferencing solutions are all relatively mature. Today, anyone with reliable access to high-speed internet can use these technologies together seamlessly.

• 84% of IT professionals believe the technology exists to allow remote workers to be as productive as in-office workers
• 78% of organizations with flexible work policies have access to the technologies and services necessary to support a remote workforce

3.2. Tech Buying Behaviors and Opportunities

The shift to remote work has been a boon to sellers of IT infrastructure and services. According to our data, 55% of companies increased tech spending during the pandemic, largely due to new needs created by remote workers.

As large portions of the workforce operate out of homes, IT buyer priorities and purchasing behaviors will shift. According to our study:

• 59% of IT professionals say how well a tech solution supports remote workers is now a more important consideration factor 
• 24% of companies will rely more on tech vendors for help with remote work

Looking closer at technologies organizations plan to buy specifically to enable remote workers, we noticed some interesting trends. Among companies with a flexible work policy:

• Most (63%) already use collaboration solutions that enable remote workers, and an additional 10% plan to adopt them within two years 
• A majority (61%) have already implemented security solutions to support remote workers, and an additional 16% plan to adopt them within two years, making this the biggest area for growth
• Most currently use or will use, within two years, a cloud help desk solution (44% currently, in addition to 14% in the future) 
• Most currently use or will use, within two years, virtual desktops (41% currently, in addition to 15% in the future)
• 33% currently use or will, within two years, tools to monitor remote employee activity 
• 32% currently use or will, within two years, hot desk/hotel cube technology 

Among these solutions, employee monitoring tools are perhaps the most controversial, for privacy and trust reasons. In our survey, IT professionals specified how their organizations’ would use these technologies.

While securing devices and data is the primary use case of remote monitoring tools, observing employee time on task follows closely behind. This ability, in addition to tracking time away from devices could be viewed as intrusive — potentially raising concerns among employees.

Planned tracking among businesses using or planning to use remote monitoring tools:

• 60% exposure to security threats
• 43% inappropriate behavior
• 40% employee productivity or time on task
• 37% internet browsing history
• 31% inactivity or time away from device

Of note, only 21% of IT professionals believe remote monitoring software can effectively measure worker productivity. 

3.3. Technology Factors Hindering Remote Work

While remote work has delivered many benefits to companies and workers alike, the shift has created tech challenges as well. For example:

• 55% of IT professionals say it’s more difficult to support remote workers than those in the office
• In 55% of companies, poor internet connectivity among at least some employees is a limiting factor for remote work, especially in rural areas (69%)
• Among companies where home internet is an issue, ~20% of employees are held back by inadequate connectivity
• In 30% of businesses, legacy technology hinders remote work

3.4. IT Challenges Among Companies Supporting Remote Workers

Since COVID-19 sent workers home en masse, life hasn’t been particularly easy for IT professionals. Because each remote worker’s home is like a miniature branch office that might require setup and troubleshooting, the scope of work in many IT departments has increased. 

• 72% of technology professionals say the shift to remote work created additional work for IT 
• However, only 11% of companies supporting remote workers hired additional IT staff during the pandemic
• 56% of IT professionals say remote work makes securing devices and data more difficult 

Office ownership is also highly correlated with plans for returning to the office after the pandemic ends. For example, 41% of the workforce will go remote (either hybrid or fully remote) in companies that mostly rent their office space, compared to only 17% in companies that mostly own their office space.

Additionally, executives in organizations that primarily own office space are less likely to support remote work (28%) compared to executives in organizations that primarily rent (43%). To a lesser degree, other employees are also less supportive of remote work in companies that mostly own their office space.

In our study, which includes representation among healthcare, education, government, and manufacturing, 74% of organizations primarily own their office space and 26% mostly rent. 

4.3. Remote Work: The Urban vs. Rural Divide

Why Remote Work Levels Fall Short in Rural Areas 

One huge factor that influences whether employees within a company will work remotely is the geographic location of its headquarters. Only 12% of employees of companies in rural areas will work remotely after the pandemic ends, compared to ~30% in suburban and urban areas.

A big reason for this disparity is insufficient internet access in rural areas. According to our data, employees’ home internet connectivity is a problem for 69% of rural businesses, compared to roughly 50% in other areas. Among companies that don’t have flexible work policies, those in rural areas are far more likely to indicate a lack of infrastructure to support remote work.

Additionally, there appears to be a strong financial incentive for many rural-based businesses to require all employees to come into the office. Among businesses that don’t allow for flexible work, respondents working in these less-densely populated areas were much more likely to say allowing for remote work would negatively affect their company’s bottom line.

It appears that workers in rural areas are more likely to view the office as an important social hub, perhaps due to lower population density and fewer social options in these areas. This sentiment, in addition to the other reasons mentioned above, likely contributes to the increased likelihood of a negative stigma around remote work in rural areas.

Finally, perhaps due to relatively inexpensive real estate, companies in rural areas are far more likely to own their office space than those in urban areas. In fact, rural organizations represented in our study own 95% of their office space, on average.

Accordingly, for the reasons discussed in the previous section on office ownership, where companies that primarily own their buildings are less likely to cut back on office space, only 4% of rural companies with flexible work policies plan to reduce office space in the future, compared to 21% of urban-headquartered businesses.

5. How Companies Handled the Pandemic

5.1. Evaluating COVID-19 Response

In our research, we asked questions to measure the impact of the pandemic and allowed respondents to self-evaluate their company’s response. Overall, employees approved of how their organization handled the global crisis:

• 83% said their company took COVID-19 seriously
• 80% of IT professionals said their company did a good job handling the pandemic
• 59% of employees said their company cares about employees’ work-life balance.

Most companies took steps to minimize the risk of COVID-19. Social distancing, enhanced sanitation efforts, requiring masks, limiting office occupancy, and temperature checks were implemented in a majority of organizations represented in our study.

Notably, while nearly half of organizations strongly encouraged their employees to get vaccinated, at the time of this survey very few took the extra step of requiring vaccinations (although slightly more were willing to put restrictions on the unvaccinated).  

Note: Since our May/June survey, attitudes have likely changed due to the relatively higher transmissibility of the COVID-19 Delta variant, so now figures on vaccination requirements and restrictions would likely be higher.

5.2. Areas for Improvement

While some aspects of business response to COVID-19 went well, there are several areas where leadership could have done better. In terms of providing clear guidance to employees, many businesses had shortcomings.

Among businesses that allowed remote work: 

• Only 46% had a clear policy on who could work remotely or not
• Only 32% clearly communicated long term remote work plans
• Only 16% employed someone whose primary role is to enable remote work
• Only 12% reimburse workers for internet connectivity

5.3. Pandemic Silver Linings

As the pandemic has continued, nearly every company has faced a great deal of pain. According to our data, the departments most impacted by the COVID-19 downturn included supply chain, operations, and sales. Countless news stories corroborated this finding as they reported on a global recession, shortages on everything from computer chips to toilet paper to lumber, and organizations scrambling to stay afloat during lean times.

But as we plan to eventually emerge from the pandemic, some good has come out of the hardship we faced in 2020 and continue to deal with. Many organizations and the global workforce have seen benefits come out of lockdown.

Among survey respondents in our study:

• 57% said COVID-19 resulted in improved workplace flexibility
• 42% said the pandemic accelerated innovation or digital transformation
• 34% said the pandemic strengthened communication and collaboration
• 28% of companies that allow it said morale improved due to remote work

6. Conclusion

In summary, we can conclude that while many workers will return to the office once it’s safe to do so, there won’t be a return to business as usual.

With so many employees working remotely while maintaining high productivity levels, and more than a quarter of the workforce expecting to remain remote permanently, the workplace of the future will continue to offer workers far more flexibility than it did before the pandemic.

This global shift has been enabled by technology. While rural areas lag behind, we’re now at a point where the infrastructure exists in most urban and suburban areas to allow many workers to work from home or anywhere with a fast internet connection. 

Additionally, technology is enabling workers to stay connected without the need to commute to the office every day or travel as frequently, improving work-life balance for millions around the world.

The desire to work remotely is strong, and flexible work policies are wildly popular among employees. Our research reveals fewer than 3% of companies that tried remote work said it didn’t work out.

For many companies and employees, it seems that the option for remote work… just works.