FlexJobs has released its annual list of the Top 100 Companies to Watch for Telecommuting and Remote Jobs in 2017. This list is based on an analysis of over 47,000 companies and their telecommuting job posting histories in the FlexJobs database during 2016.
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These 100 companies had the highest number of telecommuting job openings on the FlexJobs site in 2016. To be considered, the jobs offered by these companies had to be telecommuting-friendly, either allowing for candidates to telecommute entirely or part of the time.
There has been notable growth in telecommuting in recent years and the movement towards a more remote and mobile workforce is growing stronger. Continued advances in mobile and cloud workplace technologies, the workforce dominance of tech-savvy Millennials, and the financial, health, and work/life balance benefits that remote work offers both employers and workers are driving this trend. 68% of U.S. workers say, in the future, they expect to work remotely instead of commute to an office every day.
A quarter of the companies featured on the 2017 Top 100 are newcomers to FlexJobs’ annual list. The computer and IT industry continues to leverage its natural compatibility with remote work, while the medical and health field still leads the way in integrating telecommuting options into jobs historically associated with on-site work. Remote jobs in the government and finance career fields have also increased notably over the last year.
“The results of this year’s list are in line with the overall growth trends we’re observing in the flexible job marketplace, with increasingly diverse companies turning to the ‘TRaD’ (or telecommuting, remote, and distributed) model of work as an integrated business practice,” said Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, in a blog post. “From an even broader perspective, more people are now professionally engaged in the knowledge economy, which naturally supports jobs that can be done from home. And as more companies embrace remote work in meaningful ways, more people will have greater access to broader career and employment opportunities, creating a positive ripple effect on our economy.”
Appen earned the number one spot on the 2017 Top 100 list, with companies such as Amazon, Teletech, and UnitedHealth Group among the top ten companies with the highest number of remote jobs posted in 2016.
Some, such as VIPKID, BroadPath Healthcare Solutions, and Hilton Worldwide, are newcomers to the list, while others, such as Dell, Humana, and Xerox were also on last year’s Top 100 Companies to Watch for Remote Jobs.
Marie Moynihan, global senior vice president of Recruiting at Dell, appreciates the benefits of telecommuting and remote work for both Dell and its employees, explaining, “Our team members consistently tell us that our approach to flexible work is one of the things they value most about our work environment. Flexible working is a core business strategy for us, enabled by our technology, helping us to attract and retain great talent wherever they live around the world, while minimizing our spend on real estate. For team members it promotes a healthy work life balance and is therefore a true win-win,” Moynihan concluded.
The top seven career fields, followed by examples of companies on the 2017 Top 100 list hiring for these types of jobs, include:
- Medical and health: UnitedHealth Group, Anthem, Inc., and CVS Health
- Computer and IT: Dell, Perficient, and CyberCoders
- Customer service: Sutherland Global Services, Amazon, and Convergys
- Education and training: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, K12, and Kaplan
- Sales: Worldpay, Cornerstone OnDemand, and hibu
- Finance: JPMorgan Chase, Citizens Bank, and Wells Fargo
- Government: U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Department of Commerce
Full-time telecommuting is the most desired form of flexible work for job seekers. Reasons for wanting to work at home include increased efficiency at home and work, to volunteer, to manage a chronic illness, to reduce stress, help juggle life as a military spouse, to be healthier, to balance work with demands of being a caregiver, and to find stable work situations amid frequent travel.
While a wide variety of jobs can be done from home, the twenty most common telecommuting job titles include adjunct faculty, software developer, medical coder, writer, development director, and analyst.
FlexJobs experienced an 11% increase in the number of telecommute-friendly jobs posted in its database from 2015 to 2016, and a 52% increase in the number of telecommute-friendly jobs posted in its database over the last 2 years. Earlier this year FlexJobs identified five of the top career categories where the number of remote job listings has increased significantly.