The rise of flexible work has long been a trend workplace experts believed would take hold in the years to come, but few could have predicted just how much it would become a mainstay of the work experience in 2020. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, just 3.6% of the U.S. workforce worked primarily remotely. By April 2020, roughly half of office workers were working completely from home, according to Gallup, and the share of full-time teleworkers remained elevated at 33% as of September.
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FlexJobs, a career resource that helps people find remote work, saw a 50% jump in people visiting the site and 19% uptick in employers posting job openings in the last year, says FlexJobs career development manager and coach Brie Reynolds.
And for its eighth annual list of the top 100 companies hiring for remote roles, FlexJobs analyzed data from roughly 57,000 companies and identified the ones that posted the highest number of open remote jobs to the site in the last year, indicating a likelihood they'll continue their hiring spree into 2021.
In the last year, the No. 1 company to hire the most remote workers is Lionbridge, which provides translation services. A number of companies that specialize in customer service, staffing and online education also appear in the top 20 employers of remote workers for the year.
New to the list is Citrix, a software company whose services became essential to businesses shifting to remote work. Reynolds tells CNBC Make It the company's introduction to the list is an indication that Citrix not only successfully shifted to widespread remote work overnight, but it made a commitment to continue hiring virtually, and for remote positions that could outlast the circumstances of the pandemic.
"The biggest takeaway is that when companies switch to remote work and it works well, even in stressful and unusual times, they can learn to hire remotely rather than wait for the emergency situation to be done," Reynolds says. "It speaks to remote efficacy that allows companies to operate well even in the worst circumstances."
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Meanwhile, 11 companies including Dell, CVS Health and Salesforce have been recognized in the FlexJobs top 100 companies list since it began in 2014, which Reynolds says recognizes their status as leaders supporting long-term flexible work. Dell, for example, set a goal in 2013 to enable 50% of its workforce to work flexibly by 2020, including by working remotely part- or full-time. (Roughly 60% of Dell employees had a flexible arrangement by 2019.)
"Companies like that show how large-scale, major companies and even global corporations can use remote work really well, and can deploy it in a way that meets strategic needs," Reynolds says. "They're the ones I recommend managers and companies look at as they chart their own remote workforce going forward.
"A lot of people feel like remote work really got its footing in 2020," she continues, "but these companies show it's been around for a long time, and they've been able to do it well for a number of years."
Here are the top 20 companies hiring for remote jobs in 2021, according to FlexJobs, along with the full list of the top 100 companies here.
1. Lionbridge
Headquarters: Waltham, Massachusetts
Industry: Translation services
Remote jobs: Media search analyst, web content assessor, education consultant
2. TTEC
Headquarters: Englewood, Colorado
Industry: Customer service
Remote jobs: Marketing analytics consultant, service delivery director, technical support representative
3. LiveOps
Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona
Industry: Customer service
Remote jobs: Client results associate, learning facilitator associate, digital communications specialist
4. Working Solutions
Headquarters: Dallas, Texas
Industry: Customer service
Remote jobs: Educational sales consultant, hospitality customer service representative, tax software customer service representative
5. Kelly Services
Headquarters: Troy, Michigan
Industry: Staffing
Remote jobs: Staffing recruiter, special education teacher, computer programmer
6. Williams-Sonoma
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Industry: Retail
Remote jobs: Customer service agent
7. TranscribeMe
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Industry: IT services
Remote jobs: Transcriptionist, financial analyst, copywriter
8. Sutherland Global Services
Headquarters: Pittsford, New York
Industry: Customer service
Remote jobs: Client representative, chat sales and tech support associate, customer care support
9. Robert Half International
Headquarters: Menlo Park, California
Industry: Staffing
Remote jobs: Java developer, tax preparer, customer service representative
10. Transcom
Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden
Industry: Customer service
Remote jobs: Technical support advisor, operations manager, HR coordinator
11. UnitedHealth Group
Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Industry: Health care
Remote jobs: Incident manager, clinical administrative coordinator, data analyst
12. Cactus Communications
Headquarters: Mumbai, India
Industry: Communications
Remote jobs: Editor
13. Citrix
Headquarters: Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Santa Clara, California
Industry: Software
Remote jobs: Executive assistant, networking sales specialist, technical account manager
14. Education First
Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Industry: Education
Remote jobs: English language teacher, international language teacher
15. Randstad
Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia
Industry: Staffing
Remote jobs: Onboarding specialist, software developer, HR coordinator
16. K12
Headquarters: Herndon, Virginia
Industry: Education
Remote jobs: Teacher, literacy coach, high-school counselor
17. Supporting Strategies
Headquarters: Beverly, Massachusetts
Industry: Operational support and bookkeeping
Remote jobs: Accountant, bookkeeper
18. Aerotek
Headquarters: Hanover, Maryland
Industry: Staffing
Remote jobs: Graphic designer, call center agent, financial analyst
19. Kforce
Headquarters: Tampa, Florida
Industry: Staffing
Remote jobs: Windows developer, consumer collections specialist, call center agent
20. Belay
Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia
Industry: Virtual administrative assistance
Remote jobs: Social media strategist, graphic designer, executive assistant
Check out:
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