Is Home Office Effective? Results of a Two-Year Study

The study examined 500 employees divided into 2 groups. The first group came to work every day. The second group worked most of the week from the home office - usually 4 out of 5 days.

Study results

Home-based workers were on average 13% more efficient. There were two main reasons - they did not have to spend time commuting to work and had more peace at home and were able to concentrate better thanks to the lower number of disturbing elements. You can see their performance over time in the chart below.

Home office workers gave on average 50% fewer termination of employments. Perhaps I do not have to emphasize how demanding, exhausting and costly it is to find skilled workers and what savings this brings to companies.

After the experiment, people could choose any ratio between commuting to the office and home officer. And the result was astounding. The performance of the employees monitored improved even further.

So, the experiment has not only shown that working from home is more efficient, but also that if you give people more freedom, they reward you by higher performance.

Research also showed that the "wear and tear" of employees at home decreased by 50% – they felt more rested and were also less ill.

Research also showed the negative effects of a truly long and uninterrupted home office – employees felt too isolated.

Therefore, in the long run, the most ideal is the combination of a home office and working in the office, which maintains social and social ties.

Currently (March 2020), I am in an emergency state because of coronavirus, when commuting to the office can be a problem. This is an exceptional situation for which many companies have not been prepared. For many of us, home office is becoming a necessity rather than a choice. I think that you can benefit from this situation and your team or company can come out stronger than before.

What is your opinion? Did I forget anything?

Implementing a home office is not difficult, there are proven and tested processes. If you wish, let me know about your own experience regarding remote team management. I will respond and share my experience. Who knows, perhaps it will help you to achieve higher efficiency during the home office. I think we will all be able to benefit from it in the future.

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