Are employees more productive at home or in the office? It’s a hotly debated topic, and the answer seems to change weekly — or at least, depending on who you talk to.
If you’re trying to decide between remote work or requiring employees to return to the office, this is the resource for you. Keep reading for pros and cons, along with the latest research on remote and hybrid work productivity.
What is productivity in the workplace?
This may sound like an obvious question. But before you can determine where people work best, it helps to have a basic definition of employee productivity.
Put simply, employee productivity is a metric that tells you how efficient people are at achieving desired outcomes, whether it’s meeting a deadline or completing a project. It typically encompasses factors such as the quality of work, how long it takes to complete important tasks and how many hours go to unnecessary meetings, endless group chats and other time wasters.
What data tells us about remote work vs. office productivity
Many business leaders believe it’s impossible for team members to perform as well from home as they do at the office. For example, when Amazon announced the company would once again require employees to report to the office five days a week, CEO Andy Jassy cited “significant advantages” of being together as a primary reason. Likewise, many managers have a hard time trusting employees to stay on task when working from home.
But do the numbers support this theory?
The latest research shows remote work does not, in fact, negatively impact productivity. If anything, working from home increases it. For example, consider these benefits of remote work:
- Remote workers are 35-40% more productive than employees who work in a traditional office
- Work conducted remotely includes 40% fewer mistakes than work done at the office
- Work-from-home employees save an average of 72 minutes a day that would otherwise go to commuting — and give 40% of that time back to their employers
- Companies with flexible work arrangements, including part-time remote schedules, are 21% more profitable than fully in-person companies
That’s not to say there aren’t drawbacks. But so far, the evidence points overwhelmingly to increased productivity as a key benefit for remote employers.
Next, let’s look at the pros and cons of each work arrangement.
Pros and cons of remote work on productivity
While remote work offers numerous benefits to employees and employers alike, there are a few potential downsides to consider.
Pros
- Work environments: Many employees perform better when they control when, where and how they work. According to research reported in the Harvard Business Review, they’re more likely to experience job satisfaction and perform well.
- Better time management: Even allowing employees to work remotely two or three days a week frees them to focus on important work when they’re most productive, whether that means trading morning commutes for uninterrupted work or enjoying a distraction-free environment in the middle of the day.
- Healthy work-life balance: Giving remote employees control over their work hours allows them to balance work and personal needs in a healthy, productive manner.
Cons
- Productivity paranoia: Some managers still struggle with productivity paranoia, a persisting fear that productivity will decline despite metrics that indicate the opposite.
- Over monitoring: In response to productivity paranoia, many business leaders opt to record employee calls and emails and conduct live video surveillance — a move that ultimately hurts, rather than helps productivity.
- Overcompensation: In an effort to prove they’re working hard, many remote employees engage in busywork just to be seen. As a result, time spent on email, messaging and video calls has risen 50% or more over the past decade — much of it unnecessary.
Pros and cons of in-office work on productivity
Whether employees report to the office full-time or as part of a hybrid schedule, onsite work has its own set of considerations.
Pros
- In-person collaboration: Working in an office opens the door to more face-to-face interactions, which studies show heightens brain activity and creates richer social interactions.
- Access to resources: From workstations to supplies to the latest technology, reporting to the office ensures employees have everything they need to be productive.
Cons
- Commute times: Requiring employees to work in the office full-time often means hours of otherwise productive time spent sitting in traffic.
- Distractions: Many office environments are filled with distractions, like loud coworkers and constant interruptions, that make it difficult to focus.
- Lower job satisfaction: Just 29% of surveyed employees name working at the office full time as their ideal scenario. The rest prefer to be fully remote or work on a hybrid schedule — and 57% would look for a new job if they couldn’t do either.
Find out whether your employees are more productive remotely or in-office
Trying to determine which model works best for your organization? ActivTrak’s productivity management solutions remove a lot of the guesswork for you. More than 9,500 organizations use ActivTrak’s hybrid and remote workforce management software to compare remote and onsite productivity and make data-driven decisions.
To get started today, schedule a demo and learn how to make the most of a free ActivTrak account.
