You know what’s awesome? Working remotely. You know what’s not awesome? Going into an office you don’t like. It’s 2019, and you need to stop commuting and start working from home.
Our most recent Salary Survey shows 73 percent of tech pros think the option to work from home (or a coffee shop, or your kids’ tee-ball practice…) is “important,” but only 49 percent say it’s offered to them. This 24 percent gap is among the largest want-versus-have ratiosfor benefits in our study:
Some 21 percent of tech pros responding to the Dice Salary Survey say they’d prefer to work from home full-time, with an additional 20 percent insisting they’d be happy working from home half the time. Around 18 percent said “more than half the time, but not always,” and 19 percent said one day a week would be great. If you’re keeping track, that’s 78 percent of tech pros who want to work remotely at least 20 percent of the time.
Interestingly, LinkedIn says it’s seen a 78 percent increase (since 2016) in job postings that specifically mention flexibility in remote work and shifts; 72 percent of “Software and IT” respondents in its study report that working remotely is allowed at their place of work, with an additional 24 percent saying they can work from home “only in special circumstances.” Only four percent of tech pros tell LinkedIn they cannot work from home at all, which isn’t great, but it’s by far the lowest percentage when compared to other industries.
Meanwhile, 77 percent of respondents to LinkedIn’s study say working remotely improves their work-life balance (which we knew); 54 percent report it “encourages retention” (because commuting is a soul-sucking endeavor), and 51 percent report it helps attract candidates to the company (“Yeah, and you don’t even have to go into the office!” is a huge selling point when trying to convince people to come work with you). Forty-two percent tell LinkedIn that working from home increases their productivity, something a separate study from Owl Labs hammered home last year.
We talk a lot about remote work, and for good reason. The option to work remotely used to be viewed as a concession made for outstanding employees who either couldn’t commute, or performant stars a company wanted to retain. Now, working from home is an attainable perk; professionals no longer wonder what they need to do to earn the option to work from home.
And just about every rebuttal to a case made for working remotely has a study disproving those arguments. Remote teams are happier, more productive, collaborate better, save money, and have a better work-life balance. And as tech pro salaries level off, perks such as working remotely are fast becoming concessions employers will make to retain us.
