The Coffman Organization tracked virtual and non-virtual employee attitudes across global organizations over a three year period and cited data that suggests 65 percent of virtual employees are actively engaged at work compared to 49% of non-virtual employees; only 16 percent of virtual employees are actively disengaged, compared to 25% of non-virtual employees.  This translates to distinctly higher levels of talent utilization and productive energy, critical to overall performance, margin, customer loyalty and related business outcomes.  Overall satisfaction, and confidence in leadership showed similar differences in favor of remote workers.

 

Moving into virtual work life so suddenly, may be disrupting to the organization and its employees, but the reality is telecommuting may provide long-term benefits for all parties.  Surprisingly, the relationships built with remote workers by both team members and managers are rated more positively than with non-virtual teams and managers.