Teleworkers have been in the spotlight for some time. Teleworking was essential during the pandemic, but now that the return to the office has occurred, many of us find ourselves with a kind of “war” between those who defend said return to work presencel, and those who believe that the teleworking model should be maintained whenever possible.
Both sides offer more or less convincing arguments, but a recent study has shed a lot of light on the reality of teleworkers, and also on the value of this modality compared to face-to-face. In this sense, one of the most important data that the study leaves us is that teleworkers improved their professional commitment with his colleagues between 2020 and 2022, something that contradicts the arguments of isolation and inactivity of those who defend a return to the office.
Vyopta, the company responsible for this study, was able to confirm that the number of remote meetings held per week increased considerably, and went from an average of 5 per week in 2020 to an average of more than 8 per week in 2022. This information was obtained by analyzing metadata from platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex, used by ten large companies.
Another change in trend was also found, and that is that these remote meetings were getting shorter, and they were held with fewer workers. Entering specific figures, the duration was reduced by 25%, since the average duration per meeting was exceeded from 43 minutes to 33 minutes. The number of participants was also reduced, as we anticipated, from 20 to 10.
Curiously, the increase in the number of meetings occurred largely at the initiative of the teleworkers themselves. in 2022 66% of remote “one-on-one” meetings (between two teleworkers) were carried out completely spontaneously, that is, without planning. This represents a huge increase compared to 2020, where this figure barely reached 17%.
These confirm that we have become accustomed to teleworking, and that the adaptation process has been relatively short. Just now that many have already come to terms with teleworking, they have to “change the chip” again to return to the office, a reality that poses a clear problem, although luckily some companies are making concessions by betting on hybrid work , and they have understood that interactions via video call are not always essential, and that many issues can be dealt with and resolved with a traditional call.
