NWFM 2016 Survey Results: Telecommuter Trends in Work and Family

Virtual Vocations’ NWFM 2016 survey results are live! Join us for an analysis of telecommuting work-life balance and telecommuter trends in the delicate dance to successfully navigate work and family.

National Work & Family Month (NWFM), which was enacted by a 2003 congressional resolution and is currently sponsored by WorldatWork, is an annual, month-long observance during October that focuses on daily challenges faced by U.S. professionals who attempt to balance the demands of work with family caregiving.

Although NWFM is not celebrated as a federal day off from work, like Independence Day or Christmas Day, over the last 13 years National Work and Family Month has been recognized by private businesses, colleges and universities, federal agencies striving to meet their employees’ desires for greater workplace flexibility, and Virtual Vocations.

Virtual Vocations selected the week of October 23 – 29, 2016 to highlight NWFM. Throughout the week, Virtual Vocations’ blog readers and Facebook and Twitter followers were given access to new telecommute job search resources, chances to win $50 Amazon gift cards, a 20% discount on new Virtual Vocations subscriptions, and fresh blog content including articles on the following topics:

Registered Virtual Vocations Members had the opportunity to participate in a 10-question survey about the role telecommuting plays in their quest to achieve work-life balance. The survey, which was completed on a voluntary basis, was distributed to registered Virtual Vocations members via email. From the 1,094 responses received, we garnered valuable insight into the ways in which the desire to achieve greater work-life balance influences job seekers to opt for telecommuting opportunities over traditional, on-site employment. Here’s a breakdown the survey results by category:

NWFM 2016 Survey Results

Respondent Demographics

Among the answers submitted by our more than 1,000 survey respondents, we gained greater understanding of the structure of the telecommuting population. Our NWFM 2016 survey results revealed the following details about the sector of U.S. professionals who work remotely:

59.6% of survey respondents are over age 45
66.2% of professionals are actively in search of telecommuting job openings
More than four-fifths of telecommute job seekers would be willing to accept lower wages in exchange for the opportunity to work from home at least some of the time
The majority of respondents are directly responsible for the care of children or elderly family members in their homes

nwfm 2016 survey results

Telecommuting and Work-Life Balance

For remote workers, achieving work-life balance is fraught with telecommuting traps that can impact their finances, health, productivity, professionalism, and more. Our NWFM 2016 survey results showcase the extent to which the lines between work and home can become blurred, as well as the unmistakable fact that, despite the challenges, U.S. professionals would rather seek work-life balance through telecommuting than via any other work model:

89% of survey respondents consider greater work-life balance to be one of their primary motivators for seeking telecommute jobs
Most respondents have been required to work remotely while on vacation
More than half of telecommuters admit that, for up to two days per week, work interferes with their ability to properly exercise, cook dinner, and get a sufficient amount of sleep at night; however, the majority of respondents report that work does not interfere with their ability to share dinner with their families
Nearly two-thirds of respondents admit to checking their work email outside of normal working hours
Greater than one-third (34.7%) of survey respondents report that their workplace does not support clear boundaries between work life and home life

nwfm 2016 survey results

Are you interested in sharing our NWFM 2016 survey results and statistics on telecommuter trends in work and family? For a quick summarization of our NWFM 2016 survey results, check out the infographic embeded below, or view our NWFM 2016 Survey Results as a PDF featuring clickable links to this blog post and our social media profiles:

NWFM 2016 survey results

Virtual Vocations’ Commitment to Working Families

Virtual Vocations’ first-annual celebration of National Work & Family Month is in the books, but our commit to serving and learning from working families throughout the United States continues every day.

Over the last nine years of providing telecommute job seekers with an average of 10,000 new, hand-screened, telecommute-only job leads per month, the 100% remote Virtual Vocations team has honed its ability to help working families avoid the employment pitfalls they encountered while searching for their own home-based jobs. It’s this layer of mutual understanding that sets Virtual Vocations apart from other online job boards.

Our trained staff of Researchers, Job Quality Specialists, and Quality Assurance Specialists saves Virtual Vocations members the time and frustration of looking for a legitimate telecommuting job by communicating directly with telecommute-friendly employers and visiting hundreds of social media streams, employer websites, blogs, and industry and specialty job boards daily to bring you the newest and best remote job leads available.

Unlike other job aggregation services, Virtual Vocations publishes hundreds of new job vacancies every day, ensuring that each job posting will allow you to work from home a minimum of 20% of the time. It’s our mission to ensure that Virtual Vocations members receive fast access to the latest virtual job listings online. We even provide Virtual Vocations members with customizable email alert options, which provides members with instant access to the newest available telecommute jobs curated based on their job preferences.

In addition to complete access to our Telecommute Jobs Database, Virtual Vocations subscribers receive a variety of exclusive telecommute job resources designed to give job seekers the best opportunity at success in their telecommute job searches. Here’s a sampling of some of the exclusive telecommute job resources we offer:

Telecommuting Handbook and Interview guide downloads
A Telecommute Toolkit featuring e-courses like Create a Winning Telecommute Resume and Telecommute Job Searching for Mid-Level and Professional Job Seekers
Action plans and downloadable resume templates
Access to Industry Guides to help you navigate your search for a telecommute job in popular categories like Education and Nursing
The Telecommute Companies Database filled with thousands of profiles of telecommute-friendly employers known for hiring qualified professionals to work remotely
A team of experienced customer service professionals ready to answer your questions about utilizing Virtual Vocations during your telecommute job search via phone at 1-800-379-5092, email at customerservice@virtualvocations.com, and Live Chat Support on our Homepage

Did you participate in our National Work & Family Month survey; were you surprised by the results? Share your thoughts when you connect with Virtual Vocations on Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to hear from you!

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Joining Virtual Vocations grants you access to our hand-picked telecommuting jobs database. Our family-owned company is committed to helping you find quality job leads. We strive to help make your work-at-home job search faster, easier and safer by bringing you scam-free jobs that offer some form of telecommuting or virtual work.