When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Shawna Guevara, managing director of McKinney, Texas-based Landmark Structural Builders, wanted to send as many people home as possible.

“If the job duty or job title was not obligated contractually to be on the jobsite, then we did open it up for that person or that position to become remote,” she said.

Despite workplace changes to better manage the pandemic over nearly four years, the remote option hasn’t changed for offsite workers such as estimators, she said.

“We noticed the ability to shift a little bit and allow for remote work to still be possible,” she said.

Landmark isn’t the only one. Here’s what hybrid and remote work looks like in construction today.

Challenging, but not impossible

In 2019, 3.15% of construction employees had a mixed or hybrid arrangement, and 8.01% worked from home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, hybrid work bumped up slightly to 3.41%, and work from home to 10.16%

That work-from-home number is lower than the national average of 17.9%, according to the Census Bureau. Given the hands-on nature of construction, that’s not surprising.

“Hybrid work arrangements can be challenging in the construction industry due to the inherently on-site nature of the work,” said Brad Squibb, vice president of North America for Minneapolis-based Adzuna, a job aggregator firm that runs employment sites in several countries. “The hands-on and collaborative nature of construction projects often requires real-time coordination and communication, making it difficult to seamlessly integrate remote work.”

That doesn’t mean it’s not possible, or preferable, and a more flexible work environment can give a company a competitive edge.

“Offering hybrid or remote work can be a valuable differentiator for employers,” Squibb said, which can help contractors attract top talent, and foster a “dynamic, forward-thinking workplace culture.”

In fact, some workers value the option of staying home more than an increased salary. Employees equate remote policies to an 8% pay raise, research from Stanford University, the University of Chicago and Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico found.

From essential to beneficial

Like Landmark, Messer Construction Co. also sent their office-based staff to work from home during the pandemic, said Steven Bestard, chief operating officer of the Cincinnati-based firm.

By June 2020, corporate and regional offices re-opened under prescribed guidelines, and the company considered individual employee needs when it came to remote work over the following months.

Over the last year, Messer assessed flexible/remote work as part of their benefits. Currently, office-based personnel can stay at home one day a week, and have the flexibility to select their hours every day. The company also provides other incentives and payouts tied to attendance and vacation time for employees whose job functions don’t allow them to work remotely.

The company hasn’t reduced its office space even though every person may not be in the office at the same time, Bestard said.