89% of people expect their jobs to be partly remote after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Global Talent Survey of over 208,000 workers

What is the Global Talent Survey?

The Global Talent Survey (GTS) is a piece of research usually undertaken every four years by Totaljobs and their partners in The Network, a global alliance of more than 50 leading recruitment websites, alongside Boston Consulting Group, one of the world’s leading management consultancies. The last GTS was published in 2018, but with 2020 bringing a swathe of changes to the way we live and work, we once again gathered global insights to understand more about mobility preferences in the wake of Covid-19.

With 208,807 responses from 190 countries, the GTS is established as the world’s most comprehensive study into global mobility and jobseeker preferences.

Find out more about our first report in the 2021 Global Talent series.

Key findings from the Decoding Global Ways of Working report

Workers expect remote and flexible working to continue beyond Covid-19

During the Covid-19 pandemic, 51% of the global workforce have worked entirely or partially remotely, compared to less than a third (31%) prior. The shift to remote work was more common for digital/knowledge-based roles (70%), compared to a third (34%) of physical or social roles like manufacturing and health & social care.

Over half (53%) of Brits did the same, with 32% shifting to full-time remote work and 21% balancing time between working from home and on-site. 47% continued working entirely at their workplace, a fall from the 68% of people who did so before the pandemic).

UK workers reported a positive impact on the way they use digital tools as a result of the pandemic. However, productivity, work-life balance, and more notably, quality of leadership and wellbeing have been negatively impacted as a result of the pandemic. The impact on team collaboration has been fairly neutral, likely as a result of embracing digital tools.

In comparison, global respondents saw an even greater positive impact on the way they use digital tools compared to the UK workers, while wellbeing, leadership quality and work-life balance were negatively impacted to a lesser extent. Those working on the frontline or in other manual or key jobs were the most likely to feel their mental health was negatively impacted by the pandemic.

Looking ahead to a life after the Covid-19 pandemic, the vast majority of global workers – a huge 89% – want flexibility in terms of where they do their work, by being able to work from home at least occasionally. Interestingly only a quarter (24%) would want to go remote full time. The desire to split time between WFH and onsite is similar across job roles, although it’s clear that for certain industries or jobs, this won’t be feasible. 87% of UK workers want this flexibility too; a full-time remote working model is the most popular (28%), followed by working remotely for three days (24%) or two days (18%) a week. Only 13% would want to be onsite full-time.

This flexibility isn’t just about how people want to work – it’s when they want to work too. 64% of global respondents would like flexible working hours, and 67% of Brits want this too. Generally, global workers are more likely to favour fixed hours compared to UK workers (36% vs 32%).

Relationships and work-life balance remain top career priorities

The top four career priorities for UK workers have remained the same as 2018, although the weight of these has shifted slightly, with ‘work-life balance’ at 1^st in 2018 and having a ‘good relationship with colleagues’ taking the top spot this year.

For UK workers, ‘financial stability of employer’ has dropped in importance, by two places since 2018; ‘interesting job content’ has increased by two places and ‘learning and skills’ by one place. ‘Career development’ fell out of the top ten altogether.

For global workers, salary has jumped up the priority list to 4^th (from 8^th in 2018) in light of Covid-19, while ‘career development’ is now less important, at 9^th compared to 5^th in 2018. Interestingly, neither of these appear in UK top ten this year.

What matters most to UK workers

1. Good relationship with colleagues
2. Good work-life balance
3. Good relationship with superior
4. Appreciation for work
5. Interesting job content
6. Job security
7. Financial stability of employer
8. Company values
9. Learning and skills training
10. Personal impact

What matters most to global workers

1. Good relationship with colleagues
2. Good relationship with superior
3. Good work-life balance
4. Financial compensation
5. Financial stability of employer
6. Appreciation for work
7. Job security
8. Learning and skills training
9. Career development
10. Interesting job content

Corporate Social Responsibility has become more important for workers

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and sustainable working practices have been increasingly in focus in recent years, and in particular in 2020, so it’s no surprise that these are firmly on the agenda for candidates and workers.

69% of the global workforce believe diversity and inclusion became more important in 2020. This is slightly lower, but still the majority of Brits, at 60%, and 70% of British young people.

Over half (51%) of the global workforce wouldn’t apply for a job with a company whose policies didn’t align with their own D&I values. 41% of UK workers and 47% of young people in the UK would take the same stance.

In terms of sustainability, 70% of the global workforce believe environmental issues became more important in the last year, compared to 61% of Brits and 64% of young people in the UK.

A similar percentage of the global workforce (52%) wouldn’t work for a business that didn’t match their environmental values, versus 38% of UK workers and 40% of young people in the UK.

Read more of the global findings by downloading the Decoding global ways of working report

Delve into the findings in more detail by downloading the Decoding Global Ways of Working report, the second in our 2021 Global Talent series.

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