Dive Brief:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised businesses in February to transition to telework to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. It appears many companies now have plans to continue operations with a predominantly remote workforce. Since March, globally, remote job postings on LinkedIn have almost tripled, according to a July 30 report.
• There are some companies posting new positions as "temporarily remote due to COVID-19," Linked found. Meanwhile, other companies are pivoting to permanently remote roles or at least have made remote work an option. 
• Job seekers are looking for telework as searches on LinkedIn for remote jobs have increased by 60% since March, and applications have increased 2.3 times, the report said. Remote positions with the greatest increase in applications, globally, span customer service, marketing and technology. A remote role of customer service representative had a 112% increase, according to the report.

Dive Insight:

Many companies and workers expect that telework will become a post-pandemic norm, according to research. 

The greater majority (82%) of 127 HR, legal and compliance, finance and real estate professionals surveyed by Gartner said their organizations plan to permit employees to work from home at least part of the time upon reopening, according to a report released July 14. Meanwhile, almost half (47%) of respondents said they intend to allow employees to work remotely on a full-time basis, 43% would allow flex days and 42% would provide flex hours, Gartner said. A OnePoll and Citrix survey found that 37% of 2,000 respondents expected their employers will be more relaxed about telework after the pandemic subsides. In the survey conducted between April 2 and April 14, 28% of also said they plan to search for jobs that allow them to work from home. 

Many HR professionals embrace telework, according to a May 26 report by Fishbowl, a self-described "workplace social network." More than half (55%) of the 17,650 professionals surveyed in various industries said they would elect to continue to work from home. About 68% of workers in the tech industry showed the greatest interest in making their telework accommodation permanent. 

But amid an increase in telework, The International Association of IT Asset Managers (IAITAM) advised companies to have a business continuity plan that included IT asset management. And, it’s also important to confirm workers have IT assets that are accounted for and working properly, IAITAM said. As the digital transformation continues, the connection between HR and IT is expected to increase, according to Matt Harris, head of workplace technology at Envoy. "Industry will start to see more IT teams report to HR and chief people officers, and even directly to the CEO," Harris wrote in an opinion piece for CIO Dive, an HR Dive sister publication.