by Marketing Manager | Blog, Marketing Tips, Stats and Infographics, Trends
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to take a long, hard look at some things we used to take for granted. Over the past year, we’ve explored the wide world of masks, found a new appreciation for our wonderful public school teachers, and learned about the true value of toilet paper. We’ve also learned that for many small businesses, we can complete our daily work activities quite efficiently, even when the entire team is working from home. While the coronavirus didn’t start the shift to remote work, it certainly sped things up. Only 3.2% of the American workforce worked from home in 2018, compared to 42% in 2020! This dramatic and rapid shift is forcing employers to consider their own policies. Are you keeping an office because it’s useful, or because it’s the way things have always been done? When it’s safe to gather again, will it be time to let the office space go? Is Work-From-Home Working? Before considering ditching the office permanently, you have to consider the way the change has affected your business. Is your team more productive, or less? According to research by Global Workplace Analytics in the late 2000s, businesses are losing $600 billion annually due to workplace distractions. That same study says that many companies like Best Buy and Dow Chemical report that remote workers are 35-40% more productive than on-site workers. With meetings moved to video conferencing platforms like Zoom, they are less likely to get off topic and drag on unnecessarily. And with no commuting time, some employees are actually spending more hours at their desks, getting...
