Many employers say workers are more productive working from home

With many people working from home due to the pandemic, employers have said overall, it has been a positive experience with staff being more or as productive as they are in the office.

The CIPD research ‘Embedding New Ways of Working’ shows that in general, 28% of employers believe the increase in home working has boosted productivity, while 37% say it has not impacted productivity levels – 28% of employers reported a decrease.

The research also highlights the challenges of managing home workers, with employers highlighting:

• Reduced staff mental wellbeing (47%)
• Problems with staff interaction/co-operation (36%)
• Difficulties with line managing home workers (33%) and monitoring their performance (28%).

Peter Cheese, CIPD CEO, said, “The step-change shift to home working to adapt to lockdowns has taught us all a lot about how we can be flexible in ways of working in the future. This should be a catalyst to change long held paradigms and beliefs about work for the benefit of many. Employers have learnt that, if supported and managed properly, home working can be as productive and innovative as office working and we can give more opportunity for people to benefit from better work-life balance. This can also help with inclusion and how we can create positive work opportunities across our economies.

“But it doesn’t suit everyone and increasingly organisations will have to design working arrangements around people’s choice and personal preference over where and when they would like to work, whilst also meeting the needs of the business.

“Employers will also have to redouble efforts to introduce flexible working arrangements for staff unable to work from home otherwise they will increasingly have a two-tier workforce of those who have opportunity to benefit from home working and flexibility and those who don’t.”

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