The issue of whether working remotely is a good thing or not is one that often gets tossed around. The arguments are fairly well trodden.
On the plus side, home workers avoid the lengthy and stressful commutes to/from work, so often put in more hours than their office based colleagues. They are also free from distraction, so can focus more on their work, thus getting more out of their day, all the while enjoying their work more and thus being more engaged.
The flipside is that managers can’t monitor what they’re doing, and when people are not visible in the workplace they are not as tightly integrated into the team as otherwise might be the case. Oh, and research shows that these folks tend to miss out on promotions.
A new survey has lent weight to the pro camp, revealing that flexible working is all in all a very positive step for companies to take. The study, conducted by the University of Melbourne highlights the shifting work patterns as a result of digital workplaces. Researcher Dr Rachelle Bosua was encouraged by the findings on remote productivity.
“Our findings indicate a positive relationship between the ability to telework and well-being which in turn contributes to more productive workers. “
“In addition, work and family life is getting more blended and entwined. These elements pose unique challenges to successfully manage a new era of flexible workers and measure outputs.”
“Our study confirms that flexible work is a way for managers to invest in the wellbeing of their workers increasing productivity, job satisfaction, and retaining talented workers”.
The researchers wanted to test how productive flexible workers were in comparison to their office bound colleagues. They recruited 255 volunteers from a pool of call centre staff. Half of them were assigned to work from home, with all of the technology needed to do that provided for them, whilst the other half continued to work from the office as usual.
They then ran the experiment for a nine month period to ascertain whether home or office based working was best. The results are fascinating. The home workers achieved a number of significant wins.
- They were available to field calls for more minutes each day because they took fewer breaks
- They took fewer sick days over the 9 month period
- They fielded more calls per hour because their quiet home environment allowed them to solve customer queries more efficiently.
- They reported higher job satisfaction
- They were less likely to quit their job
Show me the money
All of which sounds great, but does that translate into cold, hard cash? You betcha. The researchers totted up the results from each participant and found that for each home worker, the following financial benefits were seen:
- Higher performance was worth $375
- Savings in office rental space was worth $1,250
- Reductions in staff turnover and training of new staff was worth $400
So all told there were savings or benefits of over $2,000 over the 9 month period. To put that into context, the average salary of each employee over the same period was $3,000. Pretty impressive isn’t it?
What’s more, the researchers believed that over time, these savings would increase. After the experiment was completed the employer allowed anyone that didn’t enjoy working from home to come back into the office, whilst any office bound employee that wanted to work from home was allowed to do so. So a kind of natural selection took place. The researchers found that the people that gave up on working from home were actually amongst the least productive, so once the natural filtering process had taken place the results could look even better.
Hmmm, interesting findings. It seems pretty intuitive, and I would tend to agree, but perhaps for specific kind of roles and not all types of jobs. I know I find I'm a lot more productive since I started working from home, with a dedicated area and basement office. But for roles dealing with the public, where team meetings may be required more often, I don't know…
My main question lies with corporate culture, or how one gets created. If half the staff works from home, it may be difficult to foster that cohesion between co-workers. Perhaps that's why Marissa Mayer decided to stop the teleworking policies at Yahoo… 🙂
Yes, it's an interesting thing about how culture and collaboration form. WIth so much investment into digital collaboration platforms there's obviously a belief there that people can do so just fine virtually. Maybe the key is, as you say, the number, or at least the proportion of people that do it. If everyone does one or the other then it's probably fine. If one group works remotely whilst another group works from the office then that would seem an easy way to segment employees in a negative sense.
Peace and quiet is often the best environment for good work (imo). The culture side is interesting though. I mean things like Linux have a strong culture, yet I suspect most developers seldom meet. Is physical proximity required?
Promotions etc. are often provided to those who stick around the office a lot though aren't they? That kind of culture would instantly put a stop to me working from home.
Yes, that's very true. A culture of presenteeism is seldom good for anything, least of all productivity and engagement.
I am not overly surprised by these findings because I do work from home, and definitely find that I'm more productive when I work from home. A lot of those reasons has to do with the fact that I'm not rushing to get home, or eyeing that all powerful clock wishing i was home. I enjoy my job more because I'm able to do it and be with my kids at the same time.
Interesting stats. I can see both sides of the equation, where working at home can be isolating but also productive. I do work at home, and I'm never as glad to be reminded of that as when I have to go somewhere and end up stuck in traffic for hours on end. I just can't imagine doing that every day, how much time lost, how much stress. It does also detach you a bit from the world (being online isn't the same!) so it's good to have a balance. Some time home, some time away. The stat about office space was interesting. That was actually the biggest deciding factor for us in where to do business. We looked at office space a number of times over the years but it never made sense. Why would we spend all that money AND have to drive to get there, when we could work virtually with just about anyone we need? And if we do need a face-to-face there are plenty of options, from cafes to coop space.
Yes, I find cafes great as well, either for a change of scenery or as a meeting place. I generally head out at least three times a week for that kind of thing just to avoid cabin fever of being at home alone for too long and it seems to work nicely.