Isremoteworkfading?Here’swhat’shappeninginSouthCarolina

Hermanns said remote work has been gradually growing since 1990s, but in 2020 it shot from around 10% to 50% of the workforce. Fully remote workers are starting to arrive back to pre-pandemic levels whereas companies are starting to “settle into” hybrid work, he said. 

For companies finding work from home to be an advantage, Hermanns said it is typically because of how much they are saving to not have to fund relocations and office space for employees.  

Since 2017, the average cost of a Class A office space in Charleston has grown from about $29 to almost $33 per square foot, according to Avision Young’s report. Though the cost is rising, the availability of office space is decreasing.  

Alternatively, companies who prefer the in-person work setting, there is a struggle for qualified candidates who are willing to return to an office or move due to the cost of living where the new job is located, Hermanns said. 

As workers return to the office, so does the culture of a work setting. Hermanns said a big reason that companies are moving toward bringing employees back to the office, whether full-time or hybrid, is the resurgence of a workplace culture.  

“It’s hard to instill core values of the company and the camaraderie when everybody is scattered,” Hermanns said. “They don’t have shared experiences, that’s the main reason why.” 

According to HireQuests’s Navigating Remote and Hybrid Work white paper, some companies are enforcing policies that make it impossible for remote workers to be promoted or get raises until they return. 

The white paper mentioned a Microsoft study which found that 85% of managers don’t trust their employees to be productive when they work from home. One tactic Hermanns said gives hybrid employers an ability to monitor their employees without having privacy devices is scheduling meetings on those remote days to keep the workplace culture engaged.

The sales industry has historically been the biggest portion of remote work, he said. Additionally, the financial services industry was of the first to adopt work from home, but they are now a part of the companies enforcing return to office mandates. 

“On one hand you’d say [remote work] has been a relatively good transition for them, and they may be well suited for it,” Hermanns said. “But again, the very fact that they’re bringing employees back into the office tells me their internal data isn’t showing that it’s been as good.” 

Of the demographics in the workforce, Hermanns said young people were the most enthusiastic about remote work. The numbers of those people employed remotely ended up having a turnover rate of more than double in-office workers. 

“There is that long-term effect if you’re the 25- or 27-year-old really just still trying to kind of learn your company and trying to kind of learn your industry, are you damaging your long-term career prospects by not working in the office?” Hermanns said. 

Hermanns said he predicts that remote numbers will continue to decrease but will eventually begin to rise again. He said by 2025 there will be “more ‘Zoomers’ in the workforce than there will be ‘boomers’ in the workforce.” 

“Personally, one of the things that I am concerned about is with young people; it’s a statistical fact that the population under 30 suffer from more anxiety, more depression than people who are older,” Hermanns said. “Working remotely may reinforce those anxieties and that depression.”