Fully Remote Workers are Officially Less Productive?

Fully remote workers are officially less productive.

That was the conclusion of the Work From Home Research team, as published in a Fortune article in July 2023.

I dug into the actual research. It was well-done and the conclusions are sound. There are a lot of limitations and cautions, as usual for good research, but the question of productivity had some clear answers.

Here is the summary:

Working from home rose five-fold from 2019 to 2023, with 40% of US employees now working remotely at least one day a week. The productivity of remote work depends critically on the mode. Fully remote work is associated with about 10% lower productivity than fully in-person work.

Challenges with communicating remotely, barriers to mentoring, building culture and issues with self-motivation appear to be factors. But fully remote work can generate even larger cost reductions from space savings and global hiring, making it a popular option for firms. Hybrid working appears to have no impact on productivity but is also popular with firms because it improves employee recruitment and retention.

Looking ahead we predict working from home will continue to grow because of the expansion in research and development into new technologies to improve remote working. Hence, the pandemic generated both a one-off jump and a longer-run growth acceleration in working from home.

What do we do about this as leaders?

Here are some of my thoughts based on this and a variety of other research. I am curious to hear yours!

• Productivity /= Profitability
• Productivity /= Well-Being or Success
• Human Contact is Important
• Mentoring and Development should be Planned
• Flexibility Respects Diversity

Interestingly, I really only got pushback on one of these from a group I shared these points with. The somewhat surprising pushback: “No, human contact is NOT important. I can do my technical job without needing to be face to face in real life with anyone, and I prefer it that way.”

Granted, none of these people were leaders. And they acknowledged the need for access to information, resources, direction, and support that leaders provide. And we were communicating entirely online. But I did find it interesting how strong a couple of these folks’ opinions were.

What are your thoughts?

With curiosity,

–Steve