How employees communicate in the age of remote work

By Talker Staff

With work from home increasing to 58% of the workforce (92 million workers), digital communication has become a focal point of workplace communication and productivity.

Following an analysis, Forbes Advisor found that Colorado and Maryland had the highest number of remote workers.

The survey also found that 28% of all respondents report using a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system. While half of the respondents we surveyed worked in a hybrid environment, 27% worked remotely and 20% on-site.

Communication tools used in the workplace in 2023

The days of the phone call may not be behind us, despite how many other communication platforms there are today. Workers are finding that the more effective communication platforms range in the type of communication they provide, whether that be instant messaging, video calls or VoIP systems. Google Meet and Zoom ranked highest for video calls, being used by 40% and 46% of respondents, respectively.

Remote and hybrid workers are using VoIP systems to communicate more often than in-office workers. VoIP systems were used by over a quarter of total respondents, with 37% of remote workers using them, 23% of on-site workers and 24% of hybrid workers.

The most effective communication tools for in-office, hybrid and remote workers

The most effective communication tool varied between on-site, remote and hybrid workers. For on-site workers, the mobile phone was the most effective method of communication for 38% of respondents, followed by landline (22%) and Zoom (21%). For people working remotely, Zoom was the most effective method for 22% of respondents, as well as Google Chat (also 22%). Hybrid workers followed a similar trend: 31% ranked Zoom as the most effective and 23% ranked Google Meet as the most effective.

How Covid-19 continues to affect work communication

Most people turn to tools beyond the standard phone to communicate at work, with 14% of respondents using VoIP when they didn’t prior to the pandemic. Over 20% of them are remote workers. It may seem obvious that more people began using Zoom (24% of respondents), but mobile phones also saw a spike in use by 20% after March 1, 2020.

Over 40% of workers feel more connected to their team since COVID-19

While Covid-19 changed the way offices and teams communicate, it didn’t necessarily lead to workers feeling less connected across the board. A total of 45% of workers who took the survey actually felt more connected to their team after Covid-19 (43% of on-site, 52% remote and 46% hybrid workers).

Some workers did feel less connected (25%). Remote workers were the most likely to report feeling less connected (34%) while the numbers were lower for on-site workers (27%) and hybrid workers (20%). There were also those who experienced no change. Of these respondents, on-site workers were the most likely to report no change (28%).

How many people still work from home in each state?

Forbes Advisor found the total number of people working from home in each state in 2023. The survey found that the percentage of remote workers varied by state. Between 20% and 24.2% of people work from home in the 11 states with the largest work-from-home workforce.

• Washington has the highest percentage of people who work from home at 24.2% of the workforce working at home, followed by Maryland (24%) and Colorado (23.7%).
• Massachusetts was the next state with the highest percentage of people working from home (23.7%), followed by Oregon (22.7%), Virginia (22.3%) and New Jersey (22.1%).
• Mississippi has the smallest workforce of people who work from home. Of the 1.2 million workers, only 6.3% (76,556) of people work from home.

Survey methodology:

Forbes Advisor commissioned a survey of 1,000 employed Americans who work in an office setting by market research company OnePoll, in accordance with the Market Research Society’s code of conduct. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 points with 95% confidence. The OnePoll research team is a member of the MRS and has corporate membership with the American Association for Public Opinion Research AAPOR). To find the number of workers in each state who work from home, Forbes Advisor sourced data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Editorial Note: This story was originally published on Forbes Advisor.