40 Remote Work Stats to Know in 2020

In 2020, workplaces are embracing remote work options more than ever before.

This is definitely apparent at HubSpot, where we have a quickly growing fleet of more than 300 full-time remote employees as well as partial remote options for those who work in our offices.

As someone who’d never really understood the perks of remote work, my time at HubSpot has allowed me to embrace this work style. While I primarily work in office, I usually spend one or two days a week working from home. During this time, I’m able to build out content strategies, take time for analytics reporting, and churn out hefty blog posts with limited interruption.

I’m not the only one who’s discovered the benefits of working from home. In fact, nearly half of my incredibly talented team works from a different state. This enables them to live closer to their families or stay in a state they love without relocating for work. As a team, it enables the in-office employees to benefit from the diverse ideas of out-of-office colleagues that we wouldn’t have had if our company didn’t allow remote work.

But, despite the perks and countless remote work testimonials, the idea of remote work can seem scary at first. Like with any emerging work style, those who’ve had more traditional, in-office job experiences might feel skeptical about remote work.

This skepticism is understandable. As a manager, you may wonder what your employee is doing when you can’t track them in person. As a job candidate applying for a remote role, you might worry about challenges such as communicating with your team or gaining valuable visibility.

While it’s good to address concerns of remote work as a boss or prospective employee, it’s also important to acknowledge that remote work isn’t going away any time soon. If anything, it’s expanding to more and more companies — especially with the growth of fast-paced telecommuting technologies, such as direct messengers or video chat software.

In this blog post, I’ll highlight 40 stats that you’ll need to know as remote work becomes even more common in the future. These figures will give you an idea of how the work style is growing, why employees are taking advantage of it, the opportunities it can provide management, and even a few challenges linked to it.

40 Remote Work Stats to Know in 2020

Remote Workforce Size

• In the U.S., 4.7 million employees (3.4% of the workforce) work from home at least half the week. (Global Workplace Analytics)
• Roughly 62% of employees between 22 and 65 say they work remotely at least occasionally, (Owl Labs)
• 44% of employees say that part of their team is full-time remote. (Buffer)
• While 30% of people report working remotely full-time, 18% work remotely one to three times per week. (Owl Labs)

Job Types of Remote Workers

• 18% of executives work remotely more than on-site. (Owl Labs)
• 35% of remote workers are individual contributors. (Owl Labs)
• 30% of people report working for a company that’s fully remote. (Buffer)
• 46% of C-suite members work remotely at least part-time. (Owl Labs)
• 55% of VPs work remotely at least part-time. (Owl Labs)
• New employees might work remotely less often at their company. Roughly 75% more on-site workers have worked in their positions for less than a year, (Owl Labs)

Remote Work Growth

• The amount of people who work remotely at least once per week has grown by 400% since 2010. (GetApp)
• 42% of employees with a remote work option plan to work remotely more often in the next five years. (Owl Labs)
• Between 2017 and 2018, telecommuting increased by 22% (FlexJobs)
• If they could, 99% of people would choose to work remotely, at least part-time, for the rest of their careers. (Buffer)

Source

• More than half of full-time in-office employees want to work remotely. (Owl Labs)
• 95% of people would encourage their friends or family to work remotely. (Buffer)

Recruiting and Job Retention

• 72% of talent professionals agree that work flexibility (which includes remote work options) will be very important for the future of HR and recruiting. (LinkedIn)
• 83% of workers, remote or on-site, say that a remote work opportunity would make them feel happier at their job. (Owl Labs)
• 40% of people say that a flexible schedule would be the best perk of working remotely. (Buffer)

Source

• 81% of employees say that the option to work remotely would make them more likely to recommend their company to job candidates and prospects. (Owl Labs)
• 74% of employees say that a remote work option would make them less likely to leave their company. (Owl Labs)

Remote Employee Productivity and Behaviors

• 77% of remote employees say they’re more productive when working from home. (CoSo Cloud)
• 76% prefer to avoid their office completely when they need to concentrate on a project. (Atlassian)
• 23% of remote workers say they work longer hours than they would on-site. (CoSo Cloud)
• 53% of remote workers say they’re less likely to take time off than they would be if they worked at their business’s location. (CoSo Cloud)
• 43% of remote employees take three weeks or less of paid vacation per year. (Buffer)
• Those with highly complex jobs that require little interaction with stakeholders are more productive when remote than in an office. (Springer)
• Email is the primary method of communication for remote workers, followed by instant messaging, and video chat. (CoSo Cloud)
• Although remote work enables employees to work anywhere, 84% of remote employees prefer to work from home. (Buffer)

Earnings and Benefits for Remote Work

• 74% of remote employees earn less than $100,000 annually. (Owl Labs)
• Despite the perk of remote work, less than 34% would take a pay cut of 5% to work remote fulltime while just 24% would take a pay cut of 10% for the same option. (Owl Labs)
• 69% of millennials will trade other benefits for flexible work options including remote work. (IWG)
• 75% of people say their companies will not compensate for the internet if they work remotely. (Buffer)
• 30% of remote employees say they save upwards of $5,000 annually without on-site work expenses and work travel. (CoSo Cloud)
• 71% of companies also do not compensate for the coworking spaces of remote employees. (Buffer)
• Businesses would save an average of $11,000 annually per half-time telecommuter. (Global Workplace Analytics)

Remote Work Challenges

• More than half of remote employees say they feel disconnected from in-office employees (CoSo Cloud)
• 22% of remote employees report that unplugging after work is their biggest challenge. (Buffer)
• 19% of remote employees report loneliness as their biggest challenge. (Buffer)
• Despite receiving confidential business data to their remote location regularly, less than half of remote employees say they receive proper internet security training. (GetApp)

Navigating Remote Opportunities

Whether you’re considering your first remote role or hiring remote team members, it’s important to keep the stats above in mind as the working world continues to evolve and embrace flexibility.

To learn more about how to be a successful remote employee, check out this blog post. For those interested in gaining visibility from home, we’ve also got a great list of tips from some of our own remote employees.

If you’re a manager trying to cultivate a solid work culture that embraces your remote employees, here’s a guide with more helpful advice.