These are the top 20 companies hiring for work-from-home jobs right now

Published Mon, Jan 11 2021 7:01 AM ESTUpdated Mon, Jan 11 2021 10:33 AM EST

Jennifer Liu

Getty Images

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.

Don't miss: The best cash-back credit cards with no annual fee

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."

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.