How remote work impacts employees

According to data from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes conducted by economists at Stanford University, the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, and the University of Chicago, around a quarter of all U.S. workdays are now worked from home, roughly three times more than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

As remote work becomes more common, researchers are running intensive studies to identify both the benefits and downsides of remote work for employees.

Through a survey of almost 2,000 graduates of professional colleges in Switzerland, Fillipo Pusterla, a lecturer in the department of management, technology, and economics at ETH Zurich, found that remote work makes employees happier by increasing their productivity and making their work more interesting.

According to Pusterla, remote workers may be more productive since they can focus more on the tasks they need to complete instead of in-office distractions, like chatter from coworkers or meetings. Remote workers also often have more flexibility about which work to prioritize and a greater ability to focus on tasks they find interesting.

Research has also shown that remote work provides employees with significant time savings. In an analysis of data from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, researchers found that people who spent more time getting ready for work and had longer commutes were more likely to want to work from home. Those who spend an hour a day on commuting and grooming wanted to work from home an average of 1.5 days a week while those who spent two hours a day on those tasks wanted to work from home almost two days a week.

"We know from a lot of creativity research that what you need for creativity is to talk to people and get different perspectives," said Sanne Feenstra, assistant professor of organizational psychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and one of the study's authors. "It's actually quite hard to be creative when you're at home on your own."

Is hybrid work better than fully remote work?

Although remote work has its benefits, fully remote work may be less impactful — and have more negative consequences — compared to hybrid work.

In a six-month study of 1,612 employees from the technology company Trip.com, researchers found job satisfaction increased significantly for hybrid workers who worked from home two days a week compared to those who were fully in-office. Quit rates among hybrid workers also dropped by a third. Women and people with longer commutes saw the greatest benefits with hybrid work.

"The trial was so successful that the company rolled out the hybrid work schedule to everybody," said Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University and one of the study's authors. "Employees loved the flexibility of working from home, and they saved on average three hours a week from not having to commute."

A separate study from Christos Makridis, an associate research professor at Arizona State University, and Jason Schloetzer of Georgetown University also found that remote work's impact on job satisfaction was limited. Based on a survey of almost 165,000 employees, they found that those who "always" or "mostly" work remotely were no happier than those who worked full-time in office and were actually more likely to consider leaving their jobs. 

How leaders can maximize the benefits of remote work

Researchers highlight several strategies leaders can use to maximize the benefits of remote work for their workers while also minimizing the downsides.

According to Feenstra, leaders can help remote workers maintain a shared sense of identity by providing opportunities for them to meet in person, using employee discussions to create a set of team values, and talking about what "we" can do as a team instead of "I" or "you."

"The main challenge for companies is, 'Even if some of our employees work remotely, how can we still have a shared identity as a company, as a team?'" Feenstra said. "How can we still create a sense of 'us'?"

Bloom recommended companies encourage their fully remote workers to work in the office at least once a month so they can avoid too much isolation and connect with their colleagues. Companies should also try to coordinate schedules so that all remote and hybrid workers are in the office at the same time.

"Don't leave it up to employees to pick their own days in the office," said Jim Harter, chief scientist of workplace management and well-being at Gallup. "You've got to organize certain days when you're going to have an office culture."

Overall, the most effective remote work policies will adjust to employees' varying preferences instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach. "Some people prefer fully remote, some people want to be in the office all the time, others want hybrid," Bloom said. "Choice is what makes people happiest."