Amazon has ordered its employees back to the office five days a week, while the UK government is pushing for more flexible working rights, including working from home. Amazon believes that full-time office work will enable employees to “invent, collaborate, and be connected.” This announcement came just as the government was linking flexibility to better performance and a more productive work culture. The debate on whether or not productivity is affected by working from home has been ongoing for years, with both sides presenting evidence in support of their arguments.
Microsoft studied its employees during the pandemic and looked at the emails, calendars, instant messages and calls of 61,000 of its employees in the US during the first six months of 2020. The study indicated that remote workers tend to collaborate more with existing colleagues rather than building connections between different networks. It also revealed a drop in real-time communication, with fewer meetings conducted online, and more emails and instant messages sent in place of face-to-face communication.
A 2020 survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) revealed that around one-third of senior decision-makers in organisations struggled with reduced staff interaction and cooperation. However, more than 40% of managers reported better collaboration when people were working from home. The same report stated that greater collaboration is hard to object to but is not always a guarantee of productivity.
The debate on working from home or in the office all the time has been ongoing for years. Chinese travel agency, CTrip, tried home working among some of its staff and found that workers were 13% more productive when working from home. However, separating workers from colleagues can lead to reduced productivity, communication barriers, and difficulties building a work culture. Employers should consider a hybrid workplace as the best option, with employees spending three days in the office being the ideal
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