New Research Reveals 64% of Companies Don’t Feel Equipped to Manage Remote Employees

Insightful, a leading workforce analytics and productivity software, this week released new research into the status of remote work, entitled The State of Remote Work Report 2022: How Companies are Preparing for the Future of Work.

The State of Remote Work Report 2022 is available for free download via the Insightful website.

Key Report Findings:

• 63.91% of company leaders believe they don’t have the right tools to manage remote employee productivity.

• 71.45% of company leaders will allow remote work at least some of the time.

• 64.68% of company leaders will allow their employees to permanently work remotely or hybrid.

• 21.38% of company leaders reported that collaboration and communication are the biggest challenge when working remotely.

• 38.06% of company leaders believe that employees are less productive in a remote or hybrid environment.

• A 383% increase in the adoption of remote and hybrid work was seen among enterprise companies.

The Ongoing Challenges of Remote Work

The report revealed an increased acceptance and adoption of remote work. However, it also uncovered that many leaders still don’t feel fully equipped to operate optimally in this new environment.

Among a wide-ranging series of findings, almost two-thirds of respondents stated they don’t have the tools they need to effectively manage their team’s productivity when working remotely.

In a further indication that monitoring remote employees’ workloads continues to present challenges, 38.06% of company leaders said that they believe employees are less productive when working remotely. And 21.38% of respondents cited communication and collaboration as the biggest challenges in a distributed work environment.

Remote Work is Here to Stay

Despite the challenges expressed, the report revealed that a resounding 71.45% of company leaders said they will offer remote work to employees in future at least some of the time.

Further reinforcing that workplaces of the future will be distributed, the report also found that 64.68% of company leaders stated that remote and hybrid work will become a permanent fixture in their organization.

Insightful CEO Ivan Petrovic said: “This research strongly suggests that remote and hybrid work are here to stay, and that they will become the prevailing work models of the future.”

“That said, the research also shows there are ongoing challenges for company leaders when managing remotely. Despite the two-year remote work experiment brought on by COVID-19, many leaders still don’t feel fully equipped to manage their team when they work away from the office.

“As remote work is still at a nascent stage, we anticipate that over time the challenges expressed by company leaders today will ease through the continued evolution of remote infrastructure and operating mindsets.”

Methodology 

The State of Remote Work Report 2022 was compiled based on online and offline surveys of companies of various sizes, across multiple sectors. It was undertaken by remote working software company Insightful. In total, respondents from 620 organizations completed the survey over a two-month period from December 2021 to February 2022.

Respondents include leaders from Fortune 500 companies, publicly listed companies, privately-held technology companies, government agencies, top universities and prominent media organizations.

About Insightful

Trusted by 1,300+ global brands, Insightful is workforce analytics and productivity software that helps you improve workflows, create more efficient processes, support employee engagement, reduce burnout and much more. In the office, remote or hybrid. Featuring the latest enterprise-grade security and privacy standards, Insightful is available in the Cloud or On-Premise.