By the end of 2021, 51 percent of all knowledge workers worldwide are expected to be working remotely, up from 27 percent of knowledge workers in 2019, according to Gartner.
Gartner also estimates that remote workers will represent 32 percent of all employees worldwide by the end of 2021. This is up from 17 percent of employees in 2019. Gartner defines knowledge workers are those who are involved in knowledge-intensive occupations, such as writers, accountants, or engineers.
“A hybrid workforce is the future of the work, with both remote and on-site part of the same solution to optimize employers’ workforce needs,” said Ranjit Atwal, Senior Research Director, Gartner.
According to the research firm, 31 percent of all workers worldwide will be remote (a mix of hybrid and fully remote) in 2022. The US will lead in terms of remote workers in 2022, accounting for 53 percent of the US workforce. Across Europe, UK remote workers will represent 52 percent of its workforce in 2022, while remote workers in Germany and France will account for 37 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
India and China will produce some of the largest numbers of remote workers, but their overall penetration rates will remain relatively low with 30 percent of workers in India being remote and 28 percent of workers in China working remote.
Impact on How IT Is Procured and Used Through 2024
The lasting impact of remote work is resulting in a reassessment of the IT infrastructure that shifts buyer requirements to demand work-anywhere capabilities. “Through 2024, organizations will be forced to bring forward digital business transformation plans by at least five years. Those plans will have to adapt to a post-Covid-19 world that involves permanently higher adoption of remote work and digital touchpoints,” said Atwal.
Digital products and services will play a big role in these digital transformation efforts. This longer strategic plan requires continued investment in strategic remote-first technology continuity implementations along with new technologies such as hyperautomation, AI and collaboration technologies to open up more flexibility of location choice in job roles.
A hybrid workforce will continue to increase the demand for PCs and tablets. In 2021, PC and tablet shipments will exceed 500 million units for the first time in history, highlighting the demand across both business and consumer markets.
Organizations also deployed cloud to quickly enable remote workers. Gartner forecasts worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will grow 23.1 percent in 2021 as CIOs and IT leaders continue to prioritize cloud-delivered applications, such as software as a service (SaaS). SaaS applications are designed for remote access and aren’t constrained by the location of the workers using the application. Social and collaboration tools will continue to be a ‘must have’ which will lead the worldwide social software and collaboration revenue market to increase 17.1 percent in 2021.
In terms of connectivity, many organizations had to change and adapt many IT approaches to ensure business continuity among their remote workers. By 2024, at least 40 percent of all remote access usage will be served predominantly by zero trust network access (ZTNA), up from less than 5 percent at the end of 2020. While most of these organizations will not completely retire all their client-facing VPN services, ZTNA will become the primary replacement technology.
