Is working from home more productive?

Is working from home more productive? Nearly half-a-decade after the first pandemic lockdowns forced half the world to get a taste of remote work, we’re still wondering—did we discover a better way to work or do we need to return to the in-person ways ASAP? 

In 2020 and 2021, the early studies about WFH productivity suggested that employees were more productive working from home and companies were reporting a positive spike in output and employee satisfaction. 

However, as time went on, new data started to paint a different picture—some studies corroborated early findings, whereas others suggested that, in reality, productivity is lower for remote workers. 

So, which is it? 

As with most things in life, the answer isn’t black and white. 

3 reasons why different remote work studies have different conclusions 

Remote work productivity should not be reduced to a single statistic. Our work lives are dynamic—how we work is always changing and so is the world around us, impacting productivity in countless ways. Accordingly, when considering remote work studies and is remote work more productive, you should always keep in mind key contextual factors, such as: 

1. The nature of remote work is constantly evolving
   Both in terms of the norms, i.e. etiquette, best practices, style, demands, expectations, as well as in terms of the technology that can foster or hinder collaboration and communication. 
2. Different people thrive in different environments
   Some individuals will flourish in the peace and quiet of their home, whereas others will find their peak in a bustling office environment. To judge them both by the same standards is a surefire way to paint a misleading picture. 
3. Productivity alone doesn’t tell the whole story
   Remote workers often work longer hours. Employees satisfied with their work environment experience less stress and burnout, resulting in a more consistent output over a longer period and less staff turnover. Office distractions, e.g. water cooler chats, are often marked as productive since they take place in the workplace. How productivity is calculated, in what timeframe, and for what purpose is critical. 

In short, be wary of a single statistic that says one style of work is X% more productive than the other. Moreover, be careful in comparing your company and employees to the ones who participated in the study because your situation is likely different from theirs. That is, if you’re a 20-person IT service agency, you shouldn’t compare your work habits and patterns to Microsoft’s since their processes, expectations, and resources will be completely different from yours. 

Accordingly, the answer to “Is working from home more productive?” will always be the same as the answer to “Is working from the office more productive?”, namely, it depends. 

Where to go from here?

Well, you’ve got two options.

The first is to just pick and choose a study you like and use it to justify whatever your beliefs are, while ignoring opposing studies and the realities of your work environment. Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky and stumble upon the right answer. 

The second option requires slightly more work, namely, putting in effort to find the most suitable solution for your specific situation. By engaging your employees, understanding their needs and preferences, and making strategic data-informed conclusions based on your team’s performance, you can determine what the most productive ways of working are. 

Is working from home more productive? Here’s how to find out in 3 steps

It’s really not that hard and virtually any company can do this. 

1. Do an employee survey

Inquire about how employees feel about remote work, what do they perceive as its benefits and shortcomings, how they rate their own productivity, what are the obstacles to more efficient work, what are their personal preferences and the reasons for them. 

2. Get real insights

Leverage time tracking applications like DeskTime to get unbiased insight into employee work and productivity levels. By automatically tracking how productively they spend their work time, you can compare the productivity of in-person vs remote workers. 

3. Analyze the data and responses

Conduct a holistic analysis of all the insights to find a conclusion that works for your company. Perhaps it’s revealed that in-office productivity is a few percentage points higher than for remote work, but the team says remote work is extremely important to them. Or, conversely, remote workers are more productive, but they favor a hybrid style, so they can come into the office to catch up with colleagues and keep loneliness at bay. 

Once you have all the quantitative and qualitative data available to you, you’ll be much better positioned to make the optimal decisions in choosing the right work mode and answer—are remote workers more productive? There will always be individuals dissatisfied with the choice, but having a high-level overview of all the PROs and CONs for your organization equips you with the insights to make strategic decisions that best benefit your business. 

It is recommended to revisit this discovery process once a year because, as mentioned previously, the way we work is evolving, as is the outlook of the teams themselves. For example, often people who thought they would enjoy remote work, realize that they struggle with loneliness or communication issues and would prefer an office to connect with others. 

Keep track of your productivity

The main takeaway is that there is no one correct answer that would apply to everyone. That said, the WFH vs in-office debate will rage on because everyone’s got an opinion, and everyone’s got a study to support it. But if you’re looking to genuinely boost the productivity of your team via finding the optimal mode of working, you should definitely do the legwork to find out what works best for your business. 

But, remember, you cannot do this without real data. Automatic time and productivity tracking tools like DeskTime will be central to your productivity boosting efforts. With DeskTime, you can gain detailed individual and company-wide reports about how your team is performing, allowing you to compare different teams and employees and, eventually, find the right setup for your particular organization. 

So—is working from home more productive and does remote working really work? You’ll have to answer that for yourself.