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Study after study has found that remote work improves the happiness and productivity of remote workers, but what about those left behind? According to recent statistics, 22% of US workers work fully remotely, and 17% work hybrid. While they might be happier, what about the rest who are still going into the office?
The evidence suggests that remote work is creating a divide between highly paid and highly qualified workers who benefit from new remote arrangements, and the front-line staff who tend to be paid less and are required to come into the office. This divide is worse for company culture and team morale and the challenge of distributed teams. So, what can businesses do to improve conditions for on-site workers?
Who Can Work Remotely?
A recent study by the Harvard Business Review has confirmed what many people already instinctively know. It is the most highly educated people who demand the best salaries who have the flexibility to work from home. Meanwhile, the most junior employees with the smallest paychecks still have to battle with the daily commute and finding affordable housing within a reasonable distance of their workplace.
According to their study, in 2023 10% of jobs with a salary of US$60,000 could work remotely, 20% of those with a salary of around US$100,000 could work remotely, and 30% of those earning US$200,000 could work remotely.
Education also matters. Only 1.9% of jobs that only require a high school diploma are remote. More surprisingly, only 20% of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree are remote. As education level rises, so does the availability of remote opportunities. Almost all entry-level jobs that require only a year of experience are on-site, while 25% of jobs that require at least seven years of experience are remote. Also, only 3% of part-time jobs are remote, compared to 10% of full-time jobs.
This is not just a US phenomenon. A similar study in Europe by the Eurofund found that 75% of the highest-paid people can work remotely, while only 5% of the lowest-paid can work remotely.
In some ways, this makes sense. It is logical that entry-level and junior positions need to come into the office as they need that environment to learn the role and develop their expertise. But how is that happening if the people they need to learn from aren’t in the office too?
Is letting managers and mentors work from home damaging the prospects of newer employees who won’t get the guidance and training they need? Does letting information workers work from home while front-line staff still need to go in creating a divide between “us” and “them”? Does this disparity do more damage to organizational culture than the reduced personal contact that accompanies remote work?
How Can Businesses Improve Conditions for On-Site Workers?
Increased opportunities for remote working are good for those employees who qualify to work remotely. As well as skipping the commute, it gives remote workers greater autonomy over how they organize their lives and how they work. The Havard Business Review has previously written about how autonomy is more integral to employee happiness than flexibility. But how can businesses give on-site employees more autonomy and flexibility to improve their working conditions and morale?
A recent survey conducted by Gallup points to some of the concessions that on-site employees believe would improve their working conditions.
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Flexible working hours
Many on-site workers find it challenging to come in five days and week and meet their other commitments. Many suggest that they would prefer to do longer shifts on fewer days, such as four 10-hour days or three 12-hour days. Employees also wanted to have the freedom to choose which days of the week they work, within reason.
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Flexible start and end times
Employees say that they would appreciate more flexible start and end times. The standard 9-5 doesn’t work for many people, especially when they are navigating things like school drop off and pick up and peak hour traffic. Moreover, having clock-in times strictly monitored for tardiness does little for staff morale. Flexibility throughout the day was also a priority.
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Increased paid time off
Considering most US employees get only 10 days of paid leave per year, compared to 20 in most other parts of the world, and a minimum of 28 in the United Kingdom, an increase in vacation days would be a welcome boon. It would help prevent burnout, increase satisfaction with more opportunities to travel, and add flexibility as employees can afford to take more personal days when needed. But it is also true that in the US most people don’t use all their vacation days, so businesses would need to work to change that culture by encouraging staff to take their full allocation as part of their total compensation package.
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Relaxed dress code
While there are certainly jobs that require a certain dress-code, many businesses enforce unnecessary dress codes. Employees responding to the survey stated that they would appreciate more flexibility when it came to what they could wear to work. When a uniform is required, a sufficient number of uniforms should be provided, and staff should not have to pay for a reasonable number of uniforms.
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Transparency
When a company does have a mix of remote and on-site workers, it is important to be completely transparent about the requirements to qualify for remote or hybrid working arrangements. It should be clear to employees that it is linked to the function and requirements of the role and not the salary or level of trust.
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Trust
As well as having some autonomy over when they work, all workers, remote and on-site appreciate having a level of independence about how they work. While, of course, supervision, standardization, and quality control are essential, the tendency in many businesses to micromanage even experienced employees who know their jobs well can undermine morale. Striking the balance between comprehensive management and micro-control needs to be struck with both on-site and remote employees, who are increasingly subject to software that monitors their computer activity.
A Complex Landscape
It is fair to say that the work landscape is becoming increasingly complicated, and not always in the ways that people expect. For years, the business community has been talking about how to maintain integration when team members are working remotely but has not been reflecting on the impact of remote working on those who still work on-site. The impact of remote work goes far beyond those who have those magic words in their contract.
