The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted organizations to embrace digital technology to optimize individual and team productivity, collaboration, and the employee experience at large. Consulting firm Deloitte observed that the abrupt shift to remote work for a large portion of the workforce has altered work as we know it. They cite a study that found that only 15 percent of those employed pre–COVID-19 worked from home; these workers were joined after the pandemic by an additional 35 percent, suggesting that fully half of the employed labor force now works from home.

“With the work-from-home cat out of the bag, it could prove challenging to coax these professionals back to pre-pandemic levels of in-office work. Staffing firm Robert Half found that 60 percent of professionals who had transitioned to a remote setup said they have better work/life balance, and that 74 percent of respondents would like to continue to telecommute more after pandemic restrictions are eased,” according to a new trend report from Deloitte.

“As organizations manage a growing number of offsite employees—working from home or other nontraditional workspaces—many are beginning to accept the inevitability of a digital workplace where work is completed by a mix of onsite and remote workers that must operate in synchrony to meet business objectives,” Deloitte noted.

Click here to download Deloitte’s complete report on the new digital workplace.