Some may have been doing it for years, others are forced by the prevailing coronavirus. The fact remains that we will be working from home en masse in the near future. But what does that do to our productivity? Are we getting more done because we can concentrate better at home than in the crowded office? Or are we unable to cope with the distractions lurking at home and are we cutting corners? We found out, based on scientific research, and listed the positive and negative effects of working from home.
Case study: Positive effects of working from home
A few years ago, a study was launched at Stanford University in collaboration with CTrip, China's largest travel provider1. CTrip is based in Shanghai, where house prices were so high that staff could no longer afford to live in the city. CTrip was therefore interested in the possibility of working from home, but first wanted to know what this would do to productivity and turnover.
A group of 249 call centre volunteers was divided into two groups. Employees in the first group worked at home four out of five days for six months. On the fifth day, they worked in the office for necessary consultations. The second group of employees worked in the office five days a week. Both groups worked the same shifts, were managed by the same manager and were rewarded equally. The only difference was the location where the work was done. The results (during these 6 months) were very positive:
1. Home workers 13% more productive
The group of home workers had on average turned 13% more output than the employees who worked in the office. That's almost a full day's extra work. But what is this due to?
First, more working hours were utilised. There were no unforeseen traffic jams on the way to the office, long lunch breaks or having to go home earlier to let a mechanic in. Yet the biggest factor was concentration. Anyone who ever works from home for a day realises what a noisy environment an office actually is. Colleagues walk in and out, talk on the phone to customers or want to discuss their weekend just a little too extensively. Although you generally still keep in touch with colleagues at home, it is many times easier to regulate.
2. 50% less staff turnover when working from home
Besides increased productivity, there was another benefit of working from home. The employee satisfaction rose sharply, causing the staff turnover decreased by as much as 50%. This is nice not only for the employees themselves, but also for the organisation. The time that normally had to be put into recruiting, selecting and onboarding new employees could be spent on other things.
3. Home workers each turned $2000 extra turnover
In the six months the study ran, each employee working from home turned in an average of $2000 extra turnover. Not surprisingly, four days a week working from home at CTrip is now the norm in other departments too.
Other positive effects of working from home
There are more studies showing that employees are more productive when working from home. A survey of US home workers found that some 91% felt they were more productive than in the office2. Home workers gave their productivity an average of 7.7 while it was 6.5 for employees in open-plan offices. In addition to productivity, employee satisfaction and staff turnover, working from home also seems to have a positive effect on involvement. Research by Gallup shows that employees who work from home three to four days a week experience a sense of belonging faster than those who work in the office every day3.
Side notes working from home
Despite these positive effects of working from home, it is not a good idea in all cases. In the study at Ctrip, working from home had positive effects, but it is good to critically examine per organisation whether working from home suits the organisation, the work and the employees. These are the three main effects of working from home to keep in mind:
1. Effects weaken
A survey of more than 500 employees shows that the positive effects of working from home weaken over time4. This is probably due to the fact that after some time, employees get used to working from home and no longer see it as a privilege. In this way, they will slowly return to performing the same as in the office, and therefore achieve similar results again.
2. Working from home can come at the expense of collaboration and communication
Employees in the above study missed professional support from the employer while working from home. They also felt that working from home was at the expense of communication between colleagues and personal contact within the organisation. Employees felt that they were inhibited in their development by the employer, which caused the company loyalty decreased.
The problems in terms of communication and collaboration is what drove big companies like IBM and Yahoo to roll back their work-from-home policies5. They were of the view that although working from home can lead to an increase in productivity in individual work, it came at the expense of productivity in team work. This fits well with the results found at CTrip in the study discussed earlier. The employees in this study worked in the company's call centre department. The work of a call centre employee is individual, which may explain the positive results.
3. Working from home is not for everyone
The nature of the work (individual vs teamwork) is not the only thing that counts in productivity. Of course, the employee's personality also plays a big role in this. Where one employee gets distracted by colleagues talking on the phone, another may be much more bothered by the distractions lurking at home. Think of the Netflix series you just started, the floor that could use a hoover or the leftover piece of cake in the fridge. Working from home requires a hefty dose of discipline, and that is simply not for everyone. Besides the danger of distractions, for some people the lack of social interaction can be a problem. Of course, you can stay in touch with your colleagues through Skype or by calling, but this is no substitute for face-to-face contact. Some studies even show that working from home can make employees lonely.
Conclusion
Working from home can therefore have a positive impact on productivity, provided it involves individual work and the employee has a good dose of discipline. The best solution is to keep the work situation flexible. Work at home when you need to accomplish a lot of individual tasks, work in the office when consultation is needed or problems need to be tackled. This way, you reap the benefits of both ways of working and avoid social isolation.
Sources
- Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J., & Ying, Z. J. (2015). Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), 165-218. / Ted Talk Nicholas Bloom.
- Lipman, V. (2016). Are Remote Workers Happier And More Productive? New Survey Offers Answers. Forbes.
- Chokshi, N. (2017). Out of the Office: More People Are Working Remotely, Survey Finds. New York Times.
- Canonico, E. (2016). Putting the work-life interface into a temporal context: an empirical study of work-life balance by life stage and the consequences of homeworking (Doctoral dissertation, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)).
- Goman, C. K. (2017). Why IBM Brought Remote Workers Back To The Office - And Why Your Company Might Be Next. Forbes.
