The coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives in many ways, from how we simply walk outside to how we work, but when medical professionals get a leg up on this virus and we turn the corner, will everything just go back to the way it was?
“The number of job postings on LinkedIn that are remote jobs have gone up 13% since the beginning of March 2020,” said Guy Berger.
Berger is the Principal Economist at LinkedIn. The company is one of several already seeing some likely lasting changes, like more employers looking to hire remote workers on a permanent basis.
“I definitely think we will see a longer-term trend in more remote jobs over the next year, and even two years,” said Brie Reynolds.
Reynolds is a career development manager at Flexjobs.com, a site that has listed remote job postings for the last 13 years.
“Before remote jobs were seen as sort of a perk or something that was nice to give employees once in a while, but it wasn’t necessarily a standard operating procedure,” said Reynolds.
Practically overnight, most businesses were forced to make it “standard operating procedure,” and some are now starting to realize how employees working remotely can be a benefit to the company too.
“They are probably experiencing things like cost reduction in terms of operations, the amount they are spending on utilities,” added Reynolds. “I think they are probably also seeing a good level of productivity and efficiency even given all the stress and anxiety that people are under.”
So as expert project more remote jobs in the future and more people beginning the process of looking for that work, there’s a few things to consider.
“The first thing is to really consider the career that you’re coming from, the type of work that you used to do, and how that might translate into a remote job,” said Reynolds. “So, if you are looking at the remote job market, we are seeing increases in careers like medical and health, computer and IT, and education and training.”
Reynolds recommends people seeking remote work should be familiar or start getting familiar with remote communication tools companies tend to use, like Slack and Zoom. To edge you up on others competing for a remote job, it would be a good idea to highlight strong verbal and written communication skills on your resume, if you have them. That’s often critical in a remote work environment. Lastly, make sure you are prepared to have adequate internet connection and computer access, especially for a possible remote interview.
“One of the things that people can do when looking for a remote job is to focus on the companies that have been doing this for a while, because they are more likely to be up and running in a remote way already and probably hiring a little bit more than some companies just starting to get remote right now,” added Reynolds.
At the very least, until a vaccine is created for COVID-19, most companies are expected to rely on remote work as either a primary or backup work solution. The longer companies do this, experts believe, the more likely it becomes that a greater portion of the current and future workforce will be permanently remote based.