40 Remote Work Stats You Need to Know

COVID-19 forced a global experiment in remote work. While we’re only now truly beginning to understand the impact this shift has had on productivity, morale and businesses as a whole, we wanted to share the top 40 recent statistics on remote work to help everyone understand both the challenges and opportunities.

The vast majority of the world has transitioned to remote

• 88% of businesses around the world mandating or encouraging their employees to work from home ( Gartner )
• Nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers who have been working remotely during the pandemic would like to continue to do so ( Gallup )

We’re using more tools and spending more on them

• 52% of businesses are using 6+ applications daily ( Spekit )
• Over half of employees (52%) said their employer needs to invest in better technology ( Computer Weekly )
• US respondents say they have personally spent an average of $348 (USD) to upgrade or improve technology while working at home due to COVID-19 – roughly $70 higher than the global average ($273), and the second-highest among 10 markets surveyed ( Lenovo Research )
• 60% of businesses spend at least $400 per month/per employee on these apps ( Spekit )
• 78% of IT leaders believe digital employee experience is essential or a high priority today, compared to only half (49%) 12 months ago ( BDaily )

Employees are working longer hours and feeling the impact

• Those working from home are racking up an extra 28 hours of monthly overtime since lockdown began. It equates to nearly four days’ work ( LinkedIn )
• A full week of virtual meetings leaves 38% of employees feeling exhausted while 30% felt stressed ( SAP )
• 23% of remote workers say they work longer hours than they would on-site ( CoSo Cloud )
• 72% of technology executives say that team workloads have increased more and everyone is working harder ( CNBC )

Businesses making changes more frequently than ever

• 44% are changing or updating tool processes at least every two weeks ( Spekit )

More change is leading to more time spent training and more support for enablement teams & managers

• 88% of sales and enablement leaders spend up to 3 hours training on tool & process changes every month ( Spekit)
• 43% of IT teams saw an increase in the number of support tickets from employees during the period of forced remote work ( BDaily )
• 28% are spending 3-5 hours training on new enablement resources every month ( Spekit)
• 46% are spending 3+ hours per week answering support questions ( Spekit)

Employees are struggling to keep up

• 71% said their employees spend 1 hr per day looking for answers ( Spekit )
• 44% of questions come up due to a lack of understanding on processes ( Spekit )
• 30% of questions come up due to confusion from frequent changes
• 82% of managers are concerned about reduced employee focus ( World Economic Forum )

The shift to remote work has exacerbated training and enablement challenges

• 88% of employees are now waiting for responses to questions on Slack ( Spekit )
• 55% identified not being able to communicate in person as one of their top three challenges ( Fleishman Hillard )
• 41% indicated a higher gap in knowledge retention since moving to remote ( Spekit )
• 37% said there is decreased productivity without being able to turn to a coworker for answers ( Spekit )
• 35% believe there is a longer ramp time for new hires while remote ( Spekit )

Teams are relying on webinars and emails to communicate changes – both of which suffer from low retention rates and fatigue:

• 67% use webinars ( Spekit)
• 21% use emails ( Spekit)
• Due to high levels of sustained concentration, fatigue begins to set in 30-40 minutes into a video meeting. Looking at days filled with video meetings, stress begins to set in at about two hours into the day ( Microsoft )

We’re just starting to recognize the very real business impact

• 33% said it slows their ability to grow across the org ( Spekit )
• Half of respondents who are telecommuting said they are experiencing burnout and overwork. Another 52% polled said they do not have plans for a break to decompress or take a vacation ( TechRepublic )
• 29% said the longer it takes to train, the longer it takes to earn ( Spekit )
• 24% believe frustration coming from employees is impacting their ability to learn new things ( Spekit )

With the highest barrier to maintaining remote productivity being morale

• 74% are struggling to keep up morale ( Spekit)
• 86% say they feel the need to prove to bosses they are working hard and deserve to keep their jobs ( LinkedIn )
• More than half of remote employees say they feel disconnected from in-office employees ( CoSo Cloud )
• 19% of remote employees report loneliness as their biggest challenge. ( Buffer )

Employees are optimistic about a future of remote work – if improvements are made

• 64% of respondents very open to being remotely onboarded if the right resources and support is provided ( World Economic Forum)
• 98% of people surveyed said they would like the option to work remotely for the rest of their careers ( World Economic Forum)
• 85% of the respondents said they wanted more help from their employers as they adapt to WFH ( Forbes )
• 19% of remote employees report loneliness as their biggest challenge. ( Buffer )

How are the best companies reinventing themselves to combat these challenges?

Companies like Southwest Airlines , OwnBackup and more turned to Spekit’s in-app digital adoption and enablement platform to power their remote teams with bite-sized training, resources, crucial updates and processes that surface right where their team is working.

Chat with us to learn how to drive the productivity of your remote team with in-app guidance learning today!