Key Points

• Most workers would prefer to work from home.
• Working from home can pose security issues for vital data.
• Most workers love the ability to have flexible hours and planning at their job.

Remote work has been around for years now. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic showed the flexibility of working from home for some of your team members. With that in mind, we’re going to take a deeper look at remote work, some of the current trends driving it, and the benefits and drawbacks it poses to your organization.

What Is Remote Work?

Remote work is fairly self-explanatory. Working from home is just doing all the duties, responsibilities, and tasks expected of a given profession from the safety and comfort of your own home. There are some definite benefits to this, especially for those wanting to reduce commute times.

You’ve likely been aware of working from home for over a decade, but the rise of this phenomenon has been something to watch, especially if you’re in a position of leadership at your organization. Now, jobs in manufacturing and production aren’t being moved to the home workplace, but there are a shocking amount of industries

Some Pertinent Statistics

So, with the primer out of the way, let’s take a look at some facts concerning remote work. At the time of this article’s publication, one in five workers are remote. Depending on your industry, you might have hybrid or remote workers already. As such, it isn’t uncommon for some companies to be fully remote, depending on the type of work being done.

Further, 2025 shows that 32.6 million Americans will work from home. This was collated by the online freelancing platform Upwork, which is a familiar site for some of our readers doing some freelancing work on the side.

Interestingly, 98% of workers want to work remotely, regardless of the industry. The promise of no commute, a custom-tailored workspace, and flexible hours are just too good to pass up it would seem. With that in mind, only 16% of all companies registered in the United States are fully remote. These companies haven’t noted a sharp drop in productivity or turnover, so they’re doing something right I’d wager.

Top Industries for Remote Workers

So, what are the top industries for employees looking to do some remote work? As you might imagine, there is nothing production or manufacturing-heavy to be found. However, for other deliverables, you might already be receiving things from remote workers. With that in mind, the top industries are as follows:

• Software Development
• Information Technology
• Marketing
• Accounting
• Finance
• Project Management
• Customer Service
• Sales

As you can likely see, these are industries where the quality of the work isn’t necessarily dictated by the conditions in the workplace. Further, as someone coming from the IT industry, remote work is more common with technical support staff.

You don’t need an office place to handle fixing someone’s email server, especially if you’re just going to remotely connect to the server and handle things. The tools of the trade have evolved to make working from home a reality.

Trends in Remote Work

So, we’ve seen the stats and the industries dominating the work-from-home revolution, but what trends are being seen by employers considering moving to a remote or hybrid setup? While many industries are moving to remote work, the current trends driving it are far less positive than you’d think at first glance.

Monitoring of Online Activity

Chances are if you’re working remotely, your employer is keeping tabs on what you’re doing. This of course depends on your given industry. However, given my own background, I know the vital importance of retaining confidential information. When you have an in-person office, security concerns are restricted to the business campus itself.

That said, when you move the work outside of the office, you have to consider all potential attack vectors. This is less about the worker, and more about the browsing habits, potential attack surfaces, and other methods where hackers and bad actors are going to seize that sensitive information.

Potential Security Concerns

The second trend rising in remote work is a more basic security concern. When you’re running an office, you likely have dedicated IT staff on hand for hardening your network and other assets. This is vital to maintaining the basic CIA triad in cybersecurity. When someone is at home, there is no shortage of possible attack surfaces you’ll find.

A possible solution comes in the form of issuing work laptops, computers, and so forth to your employees. However, that is an additional expense versus letting your employees supply the computers on their own. This might not be a concern depending on your industry, but if you’re dealing with any sort of regulatory body or compliance, it is something to keep in mind.

As someone who has dealt with cybersecurity in-depth as a professional, it is one of the major setbacks when considering remote work. However, there are ways to counteract most of the security concerns. The aforementioned monitoring of online activity and mandating VPN connections are probably the top suggestions to make.

Benefits of Working From Home

You know the trends and top industries for remote work, but what are some major benefits to considering it? For most employees considering remote work, the promise of flexible scheduling and hours are among the top benefits. This leads to a better work and home life balance, something that many corporate cultures are trying to cultivate in the modern era.

Another benefit can be a four-day workweek, which is somewhat uncommon in the United States. However, this ties directly into the notion of flexible hours. If you’re doing 40 hours of work across 4 days, you’ve got a three-day weekend every weekend.

Other considerations some workers are keeping in mind are the bog standard benefits found in most jobs. Things like employee discounts, healthcare, and additional benefits rank higher with every passing year for remote workers.

Drawbacks of Remote Work

Remote work isn’t all roses, there are some definite drawbacks to moving away from the office. Some folks who work from home feel a lack of connection with their team members. In some professions, this can be a death sentence, as the workload is a team effort. If you’re having trouble connecting with your team, productivity and communication suffer.

Another big drawback is the overreliance on digital communication tools. There is something lost in the human connection when you’re staring at a Zoom window, Slack tab, or whatever other means of communication your organization opts for. As such, this lack of real personal connection can lead to increased mental strain.

As such, you might want to consider establishing hard and set boundaries depending on the industry, to help counteract some of these drawbacks. If you’re having trouble connecting with your team, it might help to engage in some team-building exercises, which can be readily adapted for the digital domain.

Real-World Examples of Remote Work

I worked in IT for over a decade, half of that being spent in remote work. The typical work day for someone in the IT industry working remotely isn’t dissimilar to the type of day you’d see in an in-person office. You attend standup meetings to establish new milestones, discuss long-term goals, and discuss current issues with any ongoing projects.

The workload itself remains largely the same as well. Any IT worker worth their salt is going to spend a fair amount of time troubleshooting issues as they arise. Remote work doesn’t change the nature of IT, nor does it change the nature of any given industry. That said, any big problems that arose saw me hopping in the car to drive on-site.

Some problems you can’t handle over the phone or through a remote desktop support window.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

You don’t have to be a remote worker to benefit from the tools of the Six Sigma methodology. Understanding how a team works is vital to any organization. As such, I heavily recommend learning all about team capacity planning as detailed in our comprehensive guide.

Additionally, you might need to cut through the chaff and get down to the effectiveness of your team. Whether they’re in the office or at home, you want everyone on the same page. Our handy guide will get you there with minimal fuss.

Conclusion

So is remote work the way forward? Well, it depends heavily on the industry. That said, there are some great reasons to consider letting your employees work from home. Just make sure you’re planning and compensating for the drawbacks associated with it.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Ground Picture/Shutterstock.com.