Research: How Long Will Employees Continue to Work From Home?

In a recent pulse survey, i4cp asked 385 HR leaders how long they anticipate that their organization’s employees will continue to work from home full-time as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.  

Most (29%) respondents said their organizations are allowing employees to work remotely indefinitely, while 25% don’t know how long their employees will continue to work from home and 10% indicated that their employees will keep working from home through the end of 2020.

Zillow Group is one such organization in the latter category. The Seattle-based real estate company notified its employees that they can expect to work from home until at least the end of this year.

Meanwhile, some Twitter employees will never return to the office. On May 12, the company announced that some of its people will be permitted to work from home in perpetuity, even after COVID-19 related restrictions are lifted.

While the social networking giant didn’t specify which roles would remain remote forever, Twitter will offer the permanent remote option to any employees whose roles and situations enable them to work from home, according to a Twitter statement to CNN Business.

These are but two examples of organizations that have taken such steps, of course. Facebook, for instance, has extended its work-from-home policy to allow employees to work remotely through the end of 2020. Microsoft employees will have the option to work from home through October, with the exception of those who are in a role the company has deemed essential, or unless local authorities mandate otherwise.

“The fact that most organizations say their workforces are in an indefinite hold-in-place pattern isn’t a surprise—what we know about COVID-19 is far outstripped by what we simply don’t know, so focusing efforts and resources on enabling effective remote work makes sense. And what this means is that even as we do start to return to the workplace, we also need to redesign the work experience for everyone,” says Lorrie Lykins, i4cp’s vice president of research.

The data was collected May 13 - 17, 2020; the full aggregate results are available here.

For more resources and research to help you and your HR leadership team make critical decisions, visit i4cp’s Coronavirus Employer Resource Center.