Employees don’t want to go back to work, a new study has revealed. They would rather work from home.
This new work style is the result of the COVID pandemic that has brought unprecedented changes to work life since early 2020. The study – Tech Talent Outlook by job site SCIKEY – found 82 per cent respondents as admitting they preferred working from home.
The remote work trend was initially forced on employees due to the pandemic, but now work-from-home has become the new normal as new habits have formed.
The Talent Tech Outlook 2022 study is an analysis of inputs from 100 plus C-suite and human capital leaders across four continents, done by SCIKEY through surveys, social media inputs, interviews and panel discussions.
The study also revealed that 64 per cent employees said they are more productive working from home and feel less stressed.
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The new normal for HR shifted from engaging face to face to engaging with remote employees whom they meet only virtually most of the time, it stated.
More than 80 per cent of the HR managers admitted that hiring employees for full-time office presence is getting more difficult, the study said.
Working from home is no longer a choice but a new normal that every tech talent expects from their employer and the employers not willing to adapt will face challenges in hiring good talent and retaining those already employed, it observed.
The tech workforce has found new love with remote working, giving them freedom and productivity that requires HR to be more trusting, it said, adding that unengaged or underutilised employees will find alternatives faster and exit faster than pre-pandemic times.
“It is interesting to observe how the fast-evolving ‘Future of Work’ is getting past the world of conventional HR and transforming into an ecosystem that now involves people beyond the confines of company payroll and office boundaries. Welcome to the world of remote work, the gig economy, and the power of the crowd that is waiting to be explored before it explodes,” SCIKEY founder and CEO Karunjit Kumar Dhir said.
(With inputs from PTI)