14 Key Takeaways from the Latest Remote Work Productivity Studies

Remote work has slowly but surely become “the new normal.” What was unimaginable in a pre-pandemic world has now become not only acceptable but even preferable. 

What have we learned about remote work in the past couple of years? Is it really all it’s cracked up to be, or is there a darker side to the freedoms it has ushered in? Let’s see what the latest studies on remote work productivity have to say. 

Working from Home Makes Employees More Productive

A two-year study encompassing 3 million employees from 715 US companies, many of them belonging to the elite Fortune 500 group, has found that working from home improves employee productivity by 6% on average. 

Another study has found that 94% of employers feel their staff is just as productive, if not even more productive than before, when they work remotely. The same research has concluded that 83% of employees are happy to work remotely. 

What is it about remote work that makes employees more productive? One study has found that the increased level of autonomy and self-leadership contribute to higher individual productivity in employees who prefer to govern their own workday. 

Another study has, very interestingly, concluded that women, along with older and higher-income employees, are more likely to report an increase in productivity than younger male workers working lower-income jobs. 

Working from home provides a better work-life balance and allows employees to get more done. There’s no commute, and less time is wasted chatting with others in the office kitchen. There can be fewer distractions, and to a well-organized mind, this is inspirational. 

Working from Home Comes with Demands That Impact Productivity

There is, however, a downside of working from home that can negatively impact productivity, and it has to do with a lack of trust between employers, managers, and their now-remote staff. 

A survey has found that in addition to working their regular hours, office workers needed to spend an average of 67 extra minutes (or a whopping 5.5 hours a week!) making sure they are visible online. 

Replying to chat messages, having online meetings, using time-tracking software, and simply proving that they have done the work they were hired to do has cost them a lot of time. They either had to work overtime, thus annulling the time saved by the lack of commute, or get less done in their usual working hours. Paradoxically, the fear of inefficiency has thus caused the very thing it fears. 

Another study has found that an increase in these types of distractions and the added toll of extra communication has reduced the number of uninterrupted working hours employees could otherwise have access to. 

The lesson to be learned here? Instead of making sure employees track their productivity, we need to allow them to be productive, period. 

Most Employees Prefer Hybrid Work 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 59% of employees would prefer a hybrid work environment to a completely remote or a fully on-site option. This means they would like one or two days a week in the office and the rest of the week spent working from home. 

Given the aftereffects of the pandemic, this seems like the most logical option. It blends the traditional benefits of office work with all the benefits of working from home, where employees are able to be their most productive, provided that they are not constantly asked to show signs of productivity. 

Since socialization and human contact are such a vital part of productivity, more and more companies are expected to adopt a hybrid work model. In their post on requesting to work remotely, Career Sidekick encourages employees to send in requests, even if no other staff members have yet been granted this privilege. 

While some industries and companies certainly won’t be able to benefit from this model, practically every IT, marketing, sales, and HR department can adopt it with great success. 

Working from Home Is Healthier

Productivity is directly tied to employee health. Employees who are not healthy can’t hope to be productive, which is why working from home has the potential for a productivity upgrade. 

A study from Ergotron has found that 56% of employees who were given the opportunity to work in a hybrid workspace reported mental health improvements. 

88% of them agreed that the flexibility that working partly remotely provides has increased their job satisfaction. 

75% of them also feel their work-life balance has improved and that the wellness programs their companies have implemented have allowed them to better their physical health too. Since they are able to adopt a more active lifestyle, they are able to lose weight and prevent the back pain that is usually associated with sitting for long hours. 

Working from Home Does Take Its Toll 

However, there is obviously a flip-side to the healthy and productive aspects of working from home. 

One study has found that a lack of supervision makes for a less stable work environment, which can negatively impact productivity and outcomes. 

Another study points out that it is incredibly difficult to reconcile family life with working from home. It shows that the demand to achieve a better work-life balance can result in a drop in productivity caused by the added stress of the need to excel. Multi-tasking and frequent distractions are also cited as having a negative impact on work-from-home productivity. 

There is also evidence that employees do experience an increase in back pain and weight gain as a result of a decrease in physical activity and poor dietary choices. 

As Karl Kangur from Dream Grow points out, “there are so many tools available to boost our remote working productivity. We’ve never had more access to tools and courses that can help us improve every aspect of our work life, if only we are ready to reach for them.”

Key Takeaways 

TL;DR: The latest remote work productivity studies have concluded that working from home can provide a significant boost in employee productivity, mental health, general wellbeing, and job satisfaction. 

They have, however, also concluded that remote work comes with significant downsides. They include the need to demonstrate one’s productivity and a potential lack of socialization and physical activity. 

Remote work is thus not a magical solution to all of our productivity and procrastination issues. Employees who are inherently driven will thrive when given the opportunity to manage their own time. Those who routinely get distracted and spend more time chatting than working in the office will find plenty of distractions at home too.