Working from home can boost productivity !
Bank of England staff reviewed academic research on this issue and provided some interesting feedback.
Working from home can increase productivity levels for many employees, as long as they work in so called hybrid mode which will allow them to visit the office for few days a week, Bank of England staff have run this method as an experiment and shared some feedback.
There findings indicated that isolation from co-workers over certain period of time reduced effectiveness of staff and eats always at relationships forged through standard face to face contact. Some more complex and much less independent jobs has however benefited from the peace of solitary working.
This has started a debate on how much home working companies should allow. For almost half of the UK’s capital companies, a shift back to five days a week in the office is definitely off the table, according to a survey by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“WFH could result in aggregate productivity gains only if workers can be more productive at home rather than in office, or if companies use WFH to cut office space without damaging their own productivity and the ‘freed-up’ space is then used by others for alternative productive purposes,” the Bank of England researchers wrote.
They have also said that a study they reviewed settled on one to two days a week at home as an ideal balance. Other similar studies were less specific, but resulted that greater duration was negative for productivity.
I would say that impact of working from home on the productivity will largely depend on the environment at home and type of the work that workers do on daily basis. Good plan and tactics will definitely cause productivity to be higher than one observed in office environment but would largely depend on self discipline and willingness of task completion.
The key here is allowing workers to recognise they strengths and shift their duties in order to allow each individual to give 100% by providing them with best work structure possible. Of course not everyone will be suitable to solely work from home but I strongly believe that it should not be off the table and everyone should just give it a go to see what is best for one.
What is your opinion on Bank of England’s research? Are you finding that there should be some healthy balance between working remotely and working in the office? Please feel free to let me know in the comments section below.
All the best,
Lucas
