Most IT Leaders Want Remote Employees Back at Office: Survey

IT leaders in CIO and CTO roles in the United States are now saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new kind of “digital divide”, with a few of them even going to extent of blaming remote workers for the decrease in productivity.

Some CIOs are waiting for the pandemic to disappear so they can call the employees back to the office, according to a survey by Tech Domains.

In the survey, barely 16% of CIOs have expressed satisfaction at the performance of their employees working from home. Around 47% of IT leaders confirmed that they fired at least one employee for poor performance.

Around 33% of U.S. employees are currently working remotely. The number increases to 61% when it comes to tech workers.

Some analysts say it would not be easy to call back employees working remotely because many of them have already gone and settled in towns and cities with lesser living cost.

Remote-working has removed the need for commuting and what analysts call “unnecessary” meetings. “It appears that this may not actually be the case for those in IT” says Tech Domain in a blog post.

Another concern among IT leaders is that they think it is difficult to engage with remote workers.

Some organisations are rethinking the type of hires they are making. “Surprisingly, when asked to rank the most important hiring criteria in post-covid world, “people/communication skills” took the top spot, followed by “technical skills”, “experience”, “degrees”, and lastly, “cultural fit”.