40.98% Prefer Remote Working Over Work From Office

Remote work was never a real option for most working professionals. At least not until the pandemic hit. The emergence of COVID-19 had many businesses take a step back to consider what operations would best reflect their business, employers, and customers.

Going into lockdown and quarantine pushed many businesses to think outside the box. Most had to find a way to adjust their operations or business models to adjust and overcome the new hurdle in their path to success. One such answer came in the form of remote working.

After this, many employees found themselves complying to work from home. In fact, most had to follow new remote working policies in order to keep their jobs. Thus, Real Research launched a survey to understand how the public dealt with this change. Here are the results.

Highlights

• 58.75% have experience in remote working.
• ‘Zoom’ is chosen as the most-used meeting platform.
• The majority says remote working is more productive.

The Majority Holds Remote Work Experience

To start, the Real Research survey asked respondents how many hours they work on average. Next, we asked if any respondents had any experience with remote working. On this, 58.75% said ‘Yes’ and 41.24% said ‘No’. To push forth, we asked if respondents prefer remote working or working from the office. Here, 40.98% chose remote working, 26.34% chose to work from the office, and the rest said either would work.

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Zoom Takes Top Spot For Most Used Meeting Platform

Next, the survey asked how many days respondents prefer to work from the office. It seems that here many may be feeling the disadvantages of working remotely, and hope to enjoy the advantages of working from office because 42.82% chose ‘Everyday’. 

In contrast, 7.98% chose ‘One day’, while 5.26% chose ‘Two days’, and 11.52% chose ‘Three days’. In addition, 16.28% chose ‘Above three days’ and 16.14% said they prefer remote working.

Following this came the question of employee satisfaction with the technology platform and services used by their company for remote working. To highlight, 42.17% chose ‘Extremely satisfied’, 18.43% chose ‘Somewhat satisfied’, 19.61% chose ‘Moderate’, and the rest chose ‘Unsatisfied’.

Accordingly, the survey asks respondents to choose which meeting platform they are using for remote working. On this, Zoom came first with 47.62% votes. Up next, came Microsoft Teams (9.86%), Google Hangouts/Meet (8.73%), and GoToMeeting (3.62%). Likewise, following after, are Cisco Webex (2.94%) and Skype (2.57%).

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Majority Say Remote Working Is More Productive

Moving forward, the survey asks respondents if they believe that remote working is more productive than working in an office. On this, the majority (34.80%) strongly agreed. To add on, 21.39% agreed, 26.51% chose ‘Neutral’, and 8.35% disagreed while 9.16% strongly disagreed.

Accordingly, the survey asked why they prefer remote work. 27.72% said they like not having to dress up and leave their homes and 21.36% said they find it comfortable to work from home. Likewise, 8.69% said it keeps them and their family safe during the pandemic and 5.74% said it saves on expenses like traveling. Lastly, 3.22% said the office is too crowded, 3.49% said it saves time due to no traveling, and 1.16% said it is easy to focus at home as there are no distractions like in the office.

In line with this, the survey asked what the advantages are to working in the office. Here, 37.29% said being together breeds innovation, 15.53% said it boosts social interaction, and 7.19% said in-person meetings are more effective than online ones.

To add on, 6.11% said it helps in connecting to coworkers from other departments. 1.59% said it boosts collaborations, 1.11% said it is good for company profiles, and 1.01% said it creates a space for clients and employees to interact.

Accountancy, Banking, and Finance Businesses Work Best Remotely

Lastly, the survey asked respondents which type of business would likely be suited for remote working. Or rather, which business do they think will benefit from remote working. On this, the majority (32.48%) chose ‘Accountancy, banking, and finance’.

Next on the list is ‘Business, consulting, and management’ (11.66%), ‘Charity and voluntary work’ (4.79%), and ‘Information Technology’ (4.57%). Finally, the last question asked if they believe that companies will fully switch to remote working. Here, 69.43% said ‘Yes’ and 30.57% said ‘No’.