Does working from home increase productivity? Sometimes | Economic and business news

Bank of England staff reviewed academic research on the subject and shared some surprising results.

Working from home can increase productivity for many workers as long as they go to the office a few days a week, Bank of England staff said in a blog post reviewing academic research on the subject.

The results indicate that the isolation of colleagues over a longer period of time reduces the effectiveness of the employees and eats up relationships forged through personal contacts. More complex, less interdependent jobs benefit from the peace and quiet of individual work, they found.

The work culminates in a debate on how much home work firms should allow if governments relax rules to control coronavirus. For almost half of the companies in the British capital, according to a survey by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a shift back to five days a week in the office is already off the table.

“WFH could only lead to aggregate productivity gains if workers can be more productive at home than in the office, or if companies use WFH to reduce office space without affecting their own productivity, and the ‘freed up’ space is then used by others for alternative productive purposes, ”wrote the BOE researchers.

The BOE researchers said a study they reviewed found one to two days a week at home to be ideal. Other studies were less specific, but said longer duration negatively impacted productivity.

The review of the scientific literature on the subject was carried out by Bank of England staff including John Lewis, Andrea Šiško and Misa Tanaka. They found that the impact of working from home on productivity largely depended on the home environment and the types of tasks the workers were assigned to perform.

They also found that:

• Most research focuses on the short-term effects of working from home, with little analysis of the broader effects on “innovation, retention, integration of new colleagues and team cohesion”.
• Individual company decisions to reduce office space may not improve productivity across the economy
• Home productivity suffered when children were around or people lived in confined spaces and more than one adult worked in the same location
• Open-plan offices with background noise affect productivity