The 'Great Re-Design'
Workers are leveraging their market power to redefine the workplace, work time and work style
• The surge in remote and hybrid work brought forth by the pandemic has dramatically altered where and when work is performed.
• For many "traditional workers," autonomy and empowerment are now key benefits that were previously limited, to a large degree, to free agents and gig
workers.
o A recent survey by FlexJobs found that only 3% of workers would prefer to return to the office full-time after the pandemic.
o According to a
recent global survey by Future Forum, 76% of workers want more flexibility about where they work, and 93% want greater flexibility in when they
work.
o PwC predicts
that employers will adapt to the high competition for workers by making themselves stand out as 'flexible employers'.
o Some employers are offering four-day work weeks, hybrid work arrangements, and better non-financial benefits.
o PwC expects to see more of these trends, particularly in the services and knowledge-based sectors.
o "The traditional idea of going to the office five days a week or working 9 to 5 may be dying. Some companies are making room for more creative and flexible
approaches to getting workers to do their jobs," The Washington Post writes.
o New data from Y Combinator
shows a rapid shift to remote work.
o Its data shows a 6.4x increase in remote-friendly jobs in 2021 versus 2020.
o In 2021, its data showed 86% of small companies and 85% of large companies were building remote organizations, compared to 2019, when just 15% of small
companies and 10% of large companies on the platform were building remote organizations.
o New data
shows we can expect 30% to 40% of workdays to be remote, long after the pandemic is over.
o Before the pandemic, work from home accounted for about 5% of U.S. paid full workdays. That share catapulted past 60% in spring 2020, according to their
Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, and has held remarkably steady at a bit above 40% since May 2021.
