Does working from home reduce employee productivity?

Despite concerns at the outset of the pandemic, working from home had a positive impact on productivity. Evidence from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes shows that hybrid working from home increased average productivity by about 5%, using data collected between May 2020 and March 2021. About 40% of survey respondents said they spent more time working because of the time saved by not commuting, and that time that would have been spent in meetings may be more productively spent otherwise.

Productivity gains seem to be rising as companies and employees learn how to take advantage of remote work opportunities. Perhaps as a consequence of these increasing productivity gains, employers’ plans for the average number of remote work days per week have increased from less than 1.6 days in early 2021 to more than 2.1 days in February 2022.