Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams by Gleb Tsipursky

Given that people spend an average of nearly an hour per day on commute travel alone, and additional time on other commute-related tasks, this adds up to substantial additional time worked.Īnother benefit stems from greater flexibility to do work tasks at times that work for us. Workers on average devote approximately 35% of their saved time from not commuting to their primary job, according to research at the University of Chicago. A major benefit of remote work comes from doing away with the daily commute.

A study using employee monitoring software confirmed that the shift to remote work during COVID improved productivity by five percent. A more recent study with random assignment of programmers, marketing, and finance staff found that hybrid work, similarly to remote work, reduces attrition by 35% and resulted in eight percent more code written.Ī two-year survey by Great Place to Work of more than 800,000 employees showed that the shift to working remotely during the pandemic boosted worker productivity by six percent on average. Those working from home had improved work satisfaction and cut attrition rates by half. Work from home resulted in a 13% performance increase, due to a combination of fewer sick days, and a quieter and more convenient work environment. A NASDAQ-listed company randomly assigned call center employees to work from home or the office for nine months. Is the belief of the traditionalist, older half of corporate leadership that workers are more productive in the office based on facts? Not at all.Īlready before COVID, we had peer-reviewed research demonstrating that remote work improved productivity. Leaders under 50 are much more accepting of hybrid and remote work and focus on how to do it well. According to a Future Forum survey, this skepticism toward work from home tends to come from older leaders in their 50s and 60s. Indeed, a survey done by Microsoft shows that half of the bosses of knowledge workers intend to force them into the office by Spring 2023.

Musk’s demand for improving productivity via full-time in-office work for knowledge workers is something to which other traditionalist leaders aspire. That’s based on Musk’s belief that remote workers are “phoning it in” and only “ pretend to work.” The perspective of this traditionalist half of business leaders aligns with Elon Musk’s demand that all Tesla and SpaceX employees–including knowledge workers who can do their job remotely–be “visible” in the office and follow a full-time in-person schedule. No wonder only 49% of employees say that they trust their employer. Half of all business leaders believe that when employees are working “out of sight,” they don’t work as hard–and 48% of the business leaders installed monitoring software on the computers of their employees to check on their work.

Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams by Gleb Tsipursky