Startup survey shows hybrid office/remote work model set to continue
Even as coronavirus vaccinations are being rolled out, only 14.3% of OurCrowd’s portfolio companies see employees working solely in the workplace by July 1
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Many Israeli startups expect the hybrid workplace/remote-working model to continue well into 2021, with just a small fraction of portfolio companies surveyed by VC fund OurCrowd expecting to see all of their employees back at their office desks by July 1.
Even as COVID-19 vaccinations are being rolled out globally and in Israel, only 14.3% of the surveyed portfolio companies see their employees working solely in the workplace by July 1, 2021. The vast majority, 85.7%, predict a hybrid of in-office and remote work.
The data was published as part of the OurCrowd Jobs Index, based on data from 100 companies in the VC fund’s portfolio, and is a snapshot of the position in January 2021.
The first quarterly survey released by OurCrowd tracks vacancies and hiring patterns at its portfolio high-tech companies in Israel and abroad. All data is based on a survey and the jobs section of the OurCrowd website, where more than 100 portfolio companies list current vacancies.
The data shows that startups were seeking to fill hundreds of job openings at the start of 2021. The number of vacancies at OurCrowd companies in Israel and abroad nearly tripled in the second half of 2020 to 912. In Israel, the number of job opportunities at OurCrowd companies increased 400% since May 2020, reaching 219 in January 2021, the data showed.
Demand for staff increased during 2020 across most job titles but grew fastest for software engineers, according to the survey. There was a 55% increase in demand for software engineers since the pandemic began, compared to 10% for sales and business development, operations and product professionals.
About one-third of the companies surveyed said they hired more aggressively during the pandemic than before the crisis, and said they expect job growth to continue through 2021. Some 23% of surveyed companies said they had hired at a slower pace since the start of the pandemic.
