More and More Americans Are Working Remotely

professional working from home Associations Now May/June 2017 Issue

A new report from Gallup shows that Americans are increasingly working remotely. In fact, 43 percent of survey respondents worked remotely in 2016.

Americans’ penchant for remote work continued to grow in 2016. Of more than 15,000 adults surveyed, 43 percent worked somewhere other than their employer’s office last year, according to Gallup’s latest “State of the American Workplace” report. That’s up four points since the last survey in 2012. American employees are working more hours remotely, too: 31 percent of remote employees work four to five days a week offsite. “Gallup consistently has found that flexible scheduling and work-from-home opportunities play a major role in an employee’s decision to take or leave a job,” according to the report. Is your association using remote work as a way to recruit and retain staff?

Portion of Time Worked Remotely Percentage of Respondents
2012
Percentage of Respondents
2016
Less than 20 percent 34% 20%
20-40 percent 20% 20%
40-60 percent 12% 13%
60-80 percent 10% 11%
80-100 percent 24% 31%
Source: Gallup, 2017 State of the American Workplace


[This article was originally published in the Associations Now print edition, titled "Remote Work for the Win."]