One of the short-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a massive controlled experiment in the viability of work-from-home (WFH) strategies. Indeed, many enterprises went from having a small fraction of their employees working from home (28% work some or all of their week from home, according to 451 Research’s Voice of the Enterprise [VotE] survey data) to, in many cases, over 95% – often in a matter of weeks, if not days. Indeed, additional VotE survey data shows that an expansion of WFH policies was among the top three responses to the pandemic (65%) among enterprises, trailing only reduced event attendance (67%) and travel restrictions (74%).

The surprising success with which many large companies have made the WFH transition has long-term implications as well. Executives at multiple large enterprises have suggested there may be a degree of permanence to these moves, with some announcing plans to permanently close a substantial portion of their remote locations and generally rethink their overall strategy regarding work locations.