Work from home leads to improved skills

Working remotely and working in an office bring different advantages, according to a report from Frontier, an internet, phone and TV service provider.

For one, many workers working from home have improved their skills while doing so during the COVID-19 pandemic. Top skills improved in this setup include:
time management (40 per cent)

• self-motivation (38 per cent)
• understanding personal productivity (37 per cent)
• the ability to work individually (32 per cent)
• understanding when to take breaks (32 per cent)
• self-discipline during working hours (32 per cent)

Many remote workers also say they have improved their skills in fixing internet issues (50 per cent) and computer problems (45 per cent).

More than a quarter (28 per cent) also say that working remotely reduced their feelings of burnout from work, found the survey of 1,002 American employees conducted in August 2021.

Nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) of employers plan to keep offering employees the ability to work remotely, even when it is safe to return to the office, according to a previous report from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

In-office benefits

Meanwhile, workers inside the office also find a lot of advantages, including:

• working with co-workers in person (43 per cent)
• having better focus (39 per cent)
• having a refined schedule (34 per cent)
• faster problem resolution (33 per cent)
• the ability to socialize with co-workers (32 per cent)

However, 53 per cent of remote workers report high job satisfaction, compared with just 44 per cent of in-office workers.

“From vacation days to mental health check-ins, there are many things employers can do to ease the transition from home back to the office,” according to Frontier.

Employers must also recognize that the pandemic has changed many people and that things won’t go back exactly to the way they were, it says. 

“Move forward with empathy and flexibility, and provide your employees with all the tools they need to succeed in the office like fast internet that they might not otherwise have at home.”

Nearly six in 10 (58 per cent) of workers worked in a hybrid model during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 83 per cent say that the hybrid model is optimal in the future, according to another report from Accenture.