Before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 17 percent of U.S. employees worked from home 5 days or more per week, a share that increased to 44 percent during the pandemic. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the remote working trend, as quarantines and lockdowns made commuting and working in an office close to impossible for millions around the world. Remote work, also called telework or working from home (WFH), provided a solution, with employees performing their roles away from the office supported by specialized technology, eliminating the commute to an office to remain connected with colleagues and clients. What enables working from home?

To enable remote work, employees rely on a remote work arrangements that enable hybrid work and make it safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology supporting remote work including laptops saw a surge in demand, video conferencing companies such as Zoom jumped in value, and employers had to consider new communication techniques and resources. Is remote work the future of work?

The response to COVID-19 has demonstrated that hybrid work models are not necessarily an impediment to productivity. For this reason, there is a general consensus that different remote work models will persist post-COVID-19. Many employers see benefits to flexible working arrangements, including positive results on employee wellness surveys, and potentially reducing office space. Many employees also plan on working from home more often, with 25 percent of respondents to a recent survey expecting remote work as a benefit of employment. As a result, it is of utmost importance to acknowledge any issues that may arise in this context to empower a hybrid workforce and ensure a smooth transition to more flexible work models.

This statistic shows challenges of working remote in 2020. According to the survey, 47 percent of respondents indicate managing at-home distractions as the biggest challenges of working remotely.

In 2022, around ** percent of respondents stated that their biggest struggle when working remotely was staying at home too often because there they don't have reason to leave. Moreover many people who work from home do not necessarily have a designated workspace, they experience a conflation between their living area and workplace. Most notably, around ** percent of respondents reported loneliness as their biggest struggle with working remotely. As a result, remotely working employees emphasize the importance of finding strategies to balance their private lives with their professional routines. On the other hand, employees also state having less difficulties with collaboration and communication in 2021. This is likely due to the quick cultivation of skills during the 2020 pandemic that allow them to effectively communicate and collaborate with others when working from different locations. Challenges inherent in new work set-ups As employees work from different locations, companies are confronted with the urgency to ease some of the challenges inherent in novel hybrid work solutions. Strategies developed to support remote work include training for employees or expanding information technology infrastructure to ensure that employees can collaborate efficiently from different locations. The future of work Certainly, it is important to take the challenges experienced by employees seriously as the current telework trend is likely to continue and become a common way of working in the future. Addressing challenges head-on in the present will ensure better working conditions in the future.

In a global survey conducted with CIOs, respondents stated that fully remote work will likely transition to hybrid work in the future. About 15 to 16 percent stated their companies’ workforce worked remotely prior to the pandemic, and as of late 2021, 30 percent of respondents expected the workforce to be working remotely permanently. By 2022, 36 percent of respondents expected to be working in a hybrid model permanently.

In 2021, ** percent of respondents currently working at least partially outside the office indicated that their company has a 100 percent remote policy. This is a slight increase from the previous year. Only ** percent of respondents stated that remote work in their company is allowed but not the norm, down from ** percent in 2020. Global shift to new work in 2020 In 2020, the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic led to a shift from work in the office to work from home, to keep the workforce and the community safe. While this created some struggles in the beginning, many organizations and employees have since adapted and are thriving. Many employees appreciate the benefits of working remotely. Accordingly, one in two individuals indicate that the ability to work remotely is an important decision factor for future employment. Companies experiment with hybrid work models As a result, many companies worldwide are updating their policies to accommodate this new way of working. These include a combination of both flexibility on work location and productive in-person and digital collaboration opportunities. For this reason, organizations are not only actively monitoring both employee well-being and productivity but are also evolving operations to support a hybrid workforce.

With 56 percent, most respondents state they have been working remotely for less than a year. This is the case as many employees around the world had been pushed out of the office and into their home for work due to COVID-19. As a result of these circumstances, many of these employees identify as remote workers now.

This statistic shows the percentage of workforce that will remain permanently remote post-COVID who were not remote before COVID. A quarter of respondents said they will move at least 10% of their office employees to permanent remote positions. This is not surprising as CFOs are under pressure to tightly manage costs, and they see an opportunity to achieve the cost benefits of a remote workforce.

This statistic shows the frequency of working remotely in 2020. According to the survey, 35 percent of the respondents occasionally work remotely, while 16 percent of them are full-time remote workers.

The trend of working remotely has been slowly increasing globally since 2015, with a *** to ***** percent annual increase rate. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 upended the world economy and global markets. Employment trends were no exception to this, with the share of employees working remotely increasing to some ** percent in 2022 from just ** percent two years prior. The industry with the highest share of remote workers globally in 2023 was by far the technology sector, with over ** percent of tech employees worldwide working fully or mostly remotely. How are employers dealing with remote work? Many employers around the world have already adopted some remote work policies. According to IT industry leaders, reasons for remote work adoption ranged from a desire to broaden a company’s talent pool, increase productivity, and reduce costs from office equipment or real estate investments. Nonetheless, employers worldwide grappled with various concerns related to hybrid work. Among tech leaders, leading concerns included enabling effective collaboration and preserving organizational culture in hybrid work environments. Consequently, it’s unsurprising that maintaining organizational culture, fostering collaboration, and real estate investments emerged as key drivers for return-to-office mandates globally. However, these efforts were not without challenges. Notably, ** percent of employers faced employee resistance to returning to the office, prompting a review of their remote work policies.

Online searches regarding home office and remote working have surged worldwide since the global coronavirus outbreak. As companies worldwide have started moving workers to remote work setups, online interest in teleworking policies and setups has grown exponentially since February 2020, peaking in mid March. Search interest has gone down since then, but still remain at higher levels from pre-corona time. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

According to a recent global survey, 47 percent of respondents state that it is very likely that they will remain with their current employer if remote work solutions are supported. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, proper remote work setups have become increasingly important to both employees and employers around the world. In order to stay productive when working from different locations, employers must provide employees with a number of different technologies and ensure they stay well-connected to the company.

This statistic shows benefits of working remote in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia in 2020. According to the survey, over 50 percent of respondents in each country chose flexible scheduling as the main benefits of working remote.

In a survey conducted in October 2020, 36 percent of respondents from the Asia-Pacific region stated to have worked from home more than once a week even before remote work implementations due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In 2021, ** percent of respondents from a global survey of employees working at least partially remotely would recommend the working arrangement to a friend. This is a decline of ** percent compared to the previous year. In general, employees consider remote work the future of work, as they can accomplish their tasks working remotely and keep productivity up. Further, just over ** percent of respondents stated that they would consider leaving their co-located company for a remote role. Importance of tools and technology for positive remote work attitude Half of employees worldwide indicated that they are thriving in a hybrid work environment. Notably, attitudes on telework are positive if employees are given the appropriate tools and technology to work remotely. These include digital collaboration and productivity management tools, as well as necessary hardware such as cameras and laptops. Organizations invest in digital transformation Organizations worldwide are taking note of the positive attitude towards hybrid work models and adjust their digital transformation efforts accordingly. This includes adopting more future of work (FoW) technologies that foster human-machine collaboration and support a digital workforce. These changes are needed to realize the potential for more remote work, which is highest in more advanced economies and for individuals working in occupations with digital output.

This statistic shows benefits of remote work to the employers in 2020. According to the survey, over ** percent of employers indicate increased productivity as the main benefit of remote work, while only ** percent of them chose increased time zone coverage as the biggest benefit.

In June 2025, approximately 13 percent of workers in Great Britain worked from home exclusively, with a further 26 percent working from home and travelling to work, while 44 percent only travelled to work. During this time period, the share of people only travelling to work was highest in March 2022, at 60 percent of respondents, with the peak for only working from home occurring in June 2020. In general, hybrid working has become steadily more popular than fully remote working, with the highest share of people hybrid working in November 2023, when 31 percent of people advising they were hybrid working. What type of workers are most likely to work from home? In 2020, over half of people working in the agriculture sector mainly worked from home, which was the highest share among UK industry sectors at that time. While this industry was one of the most accessible for mainly working at home, just 6 percent of workers in the accommodation and food services sector mainly did this, the lowest of any sector. In the same year, men were slightly more likely to mainly work from home than women, while the most common age group for mainly working from home was those aged 75 and over, at 45.4 percent. Over a long-term period, the share of people primarily home working has grown from 11.1 percent in 1998, to approximately 17.4 percent in 2020. Growth of Flexible working in the UK According to a survey conducted in 2023, working from home either on a regular, or ad-hoc basis was the most common type of flexible working arrangement offered by organizations in the UK, at 62 percent of respondents. Other popular flexible working arrangements include the ability to work flexible hours, work part-time, or take career breaks. Since 2013, for example, the number of employees in the UK that can work flextime has increased from 3.2 million, to around 4.2 million by 2024. When asked why flexible work was important to them, most UK workers said that it supported a better work-life balance, with 41 percent expressing that it made their commute to work more manageable.

When asked whether remote work has been a success, 83 of employers agree, while only 73 percent of employees agree. This illustrates that the majority of respondents agree that remote work has been a success. Remote work refers to the practice of employees working from many different locations, relying on modern technologies to connect them to their coworkers.

This statistic shows the percentage of time employees spend working remotely. According to the survey, 57 percent of respondents are full-time remote workers, while about 27 percent of them work remotely more than half of their time.

25 percent of respondents to a recent survey state that setting boundaries is the most important priority for them, more than any other possible response. This is especially pertinent as burnouts occur more frequently, and balancing private life and professional working life is a way to maintain mental health and be productive. Another key area is staying productive and focused, which adds up to 20 percent.

This statistic shows workplaces' stance on remote work in 2020. According to the survey, 30 percent of respondents work in a fully remote companies. Overall, over 60 percent of respondents indicated their companies have a split between employees working out of an office and employees who work remotely.