Almost no one wants to work from an office all the time. Nor do they want to work from home all the time. Instead, in a post-COVID world, nine out of 10 people want a combination of remote and in-office work, according to a new survey from Smartway2.
The Marlborough, Mass.-based company, which provides workspace scheduling solutions, found that only 2% of people want to go into the office every day, and only 6% want to work remotely every day.
“We’ve all been participating in a great, unplanned workplace experiment during COVID-19, and we have learned a lot about employee interests, work habits and what it takes to get the job done,” said John T. Anderson, CEO of Smartway2. “Organizations have found that employees want the best of both worlds.”
Smartway2 surveyed business decision-makers, primarily in facilities/corporate real estate, HR and IT to uncover sentiments about returning to work over the long term. And with the great majority of respondents preferring to split their time between their homes and their office, experts expect that the traditional workplace will be transformed and employees will be compelled to offer a more flexible work strategy.
Employees find working from home falls short in key areas. Forty percent of workers miss the social interaction in the office, while 37% miss spontaneous collaboration and idea sharing. Respondents also feel effective collaboration in pairs or teams is lacking when working from home (12%) and think the home is not optimized for productivity (12%).
But there are some benefits to working from home, primarily flexibility in how employees organize their time (45% percent), no commute (30%), fewer distractions (19%) and feeling comfortable (6%).
Anderson added: “According to our survey, nearly all employees are interested in a blended arrangement of working from home and office, and forward-thinking companies are already beginning to reimagine ways of operating – with the help of technology – to create this optimal work environment.”
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