90% of Employees Would Stay Longer with Their Employer If Working From Home Was an Option

85% of employees are more positive about working from home in the mass remote work experiment since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new survey conducted by employee engagement platform vendor, Workvivo.

The global survey of 1,000 employees, all of whom have started working from home since the onset of the pandemic, finds that the new normal could be here to stay with 52% of respondents saying they would like to work from home permanently, while 36% would prefer a combination of both office and home days. Results of the survey showed that overall productivity and communication seems to be increased in the most part.

Some 70% of employees claimed they feel more productive working from home. 63% said their employers are communicating with them more since they started working from home and 51% said they are communicating more with their colleagues too.

With the prevalence of working from home during the pandemic, keeping employees engaged and connected has been more of a priority than ever for progressive companies. The results of the new survey have shed light on how employers have managed the work-from-home experiment since the pandemic.

It comes as a positive contrast to the oft-cited Gallup poll, which was conducted before the pandemic and previously estimated up to 70% of employees globally are disengaged at work, costing the worldwide economy $450 billion annually.

Speaking on the results of the survey, CEO of Workvivo John Goulding said: “Remote work was a major adjustment for businesses all over the world – but clearly we’re now seeing a very tangible and explicit desire and expectation for longer-term flexibility among employees. As companies work to attract and maintain talent, it will be vital to offer this flexibility to compete.”

“With the workforce now distributed, it’s also crucial that employers consider how they’re communicating with their employees. Email and Slack aren’t enough to engage employees around what’s important for the organisation. It’s more important than ever that employees feel part of something bigger than themselves, and the right technology can be a powerful enabler to ensure this.”

The survey with 1,000 employees working from home in recent months also found that:

— 53.6% would not like to return to the office.

— 63% of employees approve of how employers have treated them since working from home.

— 34% said that meeting colleagues in the office is the thing they’d miss most if they were to work from home permanently.

— 23% said they’d miss getting out of the house.

— 49% chose not having to commute as one of the top answers for why they like working from home.

In May, Workvivo raised a $16million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global, who have invested in companies such as LinkedIn, Airbnb, Stripe, Uber and Square with participation from Frontline Ventures. The Series A round follows on from a seed round late last year, bringing total funding to just over $17.5 million.