The number of people working remotely from home may have risen but it’s actually not as widely accepted as one might imagine. Skepticism still remains. The internet education portal OnlineDegrees.com pulled together various studies and created an info-graphic to get a handle on the status of the remote worker movement and gain insight about working-at-home behavior.
What the study found was that the number of people working from home has gone up from 2.3% back in 1980 to 4.3% in 2010. Growth over that time period would be expected, but what’s surprising is that growth was so little – less than double. When you consider the technology developments over a 30 year time period it would not be out of line to be thinking that the rise would be 3 to 5 times the amount. Personal computers were still a new thing and very few people knew about the existence of the internet in 1980. It’s hard to imagine a remote worker at that time except for the sales rep who was always on the road.
Looking over the info-graphic you can see why many in management may be reluctant to adopt the virtual model. For instance 43% of the remote workers surveyed admitted they watch TV or a movie while at home working and 35% do household chores. Distractions abound and beckon. But in all this potential for “spacing out”, the study doesn’t say whether the workers completed their expected tasks or did more overall than those who come into and out of an office at specific hours. Having clear deliverables for the day and then completing or exceeding them would seem to make any couch break palatable. Having remote workers may not, in most cases, require draconian practices such as monitoring their every move, but it may mean being sure they are clear on what they need to accomplish and checking in on their engagement levels. What’s your thought or experience?
Here’s a link to the infographic located on the Mashable website: Can Employees Be Trusted to Work From Home?
