MetaFacts TUP/Technology User Profile analysis results for subscribers
During the pandemic, employees have scrambled to be able to work from home, often using their personal devices in lieu of employer-provided technology products. This TUPdate reports on the specific work-related activities regularly done by employees that do and don’t work from home using their smartphones, home PCs, work PCs, and tablets.
Working from home has been a widespread response to the pandemic, although it is not an option for everyone, nor does every employer support it. Nearly a third of employees that work from home work for an employer with less than 20 employees, twice the rate of those not working from home. This TUPdate reports on online Americans that do and don’t work from home by employer size and employment status.
Email continues to lead as the major communication activity across all devices. One-to-one video calls have grown rapidly. Worldwide and US employees are showing their Zoom/Webex fatigue, as both work and personal web-based group meetings have subsided.
Workers working from home are younger than average, more often married or coupled than single, and more likely to be a college graduate. This TUPdate reports on the age, marital status, and educational attainment of employees regularly working from home, as well as their household demographics: household size, income, presence of children, and ownership or rental of dwelling.
Working from home requires more communication than ever, both a broad range of devices (smartphones, computers, tablets), and types (calls, messages, meetings with and without video). Employees working from home use computers for different communication activities than they do with smartphones. This TUPdate compares a detailed list of communication activities among those working from home and those not working from home, and also identifies which devices – PCs, smartphones, or others – are used the most for communication by work from home status.
Employees expect to return to pre-pandemic levels. In one year (in August 2022), 13% of employees globally expect to be working from home always or the majority of the time. Among American employees, this share is 25%. In one year (in August 2022), 70% of employees globally expect to be working from home at least occasionally. Among American employees, this share is nearer to two-thirds (63%).
Many employees working from home need connected devices to work or to communicate. This TUPdate reports on the collection of actively used connected devices, comparing what is being used by employees working from home, employees not working from home, and adults not employed outside the home. These are split by form factor as well as operating system family.
Employees who have had prior experience working from home have different and more intense technology purchase plans than those who are new to working from home or that have never worked from home. This TUPdate identifies purchase plans for a selection of home office products among employees comparing their previous experience working from home.
Working from home is wholly new to some people, old hat to others, and not experienced by yet others. Seasoned workers – those who ever worked from home before the pandemic and do so now – make up the largest segment of online adults. The second-largest group is diametrically opposed – having never worked from home and not currently doing so. This MetaFAQs reports on the size of four segments by their prior and current experience of working from home.
Globally, smartphone hours increased in 2020 and returned to prior levels in 2021. In the US, average weekly hours subsided with PCs while slightly increasing with smartphones and tablets.