Chances are that you’re starting this new workweek in this New Year working from home. That’s likely to continue, or at least the option to do so, regardless of how fast the coronavirus pandemic passes this year. Bill Wagner should know. He’s the President and CEO of LogMeIn, providers of the remote meeting technology behind many of the popular videoconferencing apps we now use routinely.
As we’ve been reporting in an ongoing series of stories, remote work is changing our lives and business practices in many ways. Wagner shared his thoughts recently in a LinkedIn article on how the very remote work environment that his Boston-based software company enables its users to enjoy, has led his own company’s employees to become “remote-centric.”
He writes about how only 7% of his employees were full-time remote workers before the pandemic. By the third week of March last year, 100% of them were remote, something that will remain that way at least through the end of this coming April. An employee survey revealed that post-pandemic, only 5% want to be in the office five days a week, 30% want the option of remote-only, and 37% want the option of mixing both.
What’s even more interesting is the general survey of its customers that LogMeIn conducted. It noted that 77% of worldwide businesses are using flexible work schedules, with increased employee well-being and productivity from remote work. It found that remote workers are 13% more productive, work longer hours but are happier doing so, take fewer sick days, and employee retention is 50% higher. The survey calculated remote work will eliminate 360 hours of commuting in a year on average, too.
Today, going on ten months into the pandemic, some companies have employees working from home and some others have a hybrid matrix of remote and in-office work. But there are others who are realizing they just don’t need the office space and overhead. What Bill Wagner is talking about is really the potential “workplace of tomorrow” that in essence, has already arrived.
See you on the trail,
Lisa
LMA Newsletter of 1-4-21
