Remote Work Productivity Statistics [Fresh Research] • Gitnux (2024)

FAQs

What is the correlation between remote work and productivity? ›

It's true that widespread studies based on standard measures of efficiency have found that fully remote employees are 10% to 20% less productive than those working on company premises. Challenges related to communications, coordination and self-motivation may be factors in the decline.

Increased Productivity: According to a survey by ConnectSolution, 77% of remote workers say they're more productive when working from home, with 30% doing more work in less time and 24% doing more work in the same period[2].

Work-from-home productivity statistics

Just 16% of white-collar workers in our survey said they're more productive in the office, compared to 46% who said they were more productive at home. 38% of respondents said they were much more likely to work longer hours if remote.

To monitor employees' productivity working from home, use remote employee monitoring software that tracks their activities, including computer usage, internet browsing, time spent on different tasks, and completed work.

Some studies like the Fortune paper suggest that remote employees are more productive than non-remote workers. A recent study by the Harvard Business Review found that remote employees are more productive than their on-site workers/ office workers. The reason is that they are less likely to take time off and quit.

A recent study reported in Forbes found that “workers who worked from home 100% of the time were 20% happier on average than those who didn't have the ability to work from home.” That study also found “a strong correlation between work happiness and overall happiness.” Another study found that “people who have the ...

Remote work trends by profession

Here's a breakdown of our findings based on data from Q1 2024: Marketing and creative: 27% hybrid, 16% remote. Finance and accounting: 24% hybrid, 9% remote. Technology: 25% hybrid, 16% remote.

A study from Ergotron of 1,000 people revealed that 56% of those in a hybrid or remote role reported mental health improvements and better work-life balance. Physical health in remote workers was improved by 75% due to a more active work style.

By providing remote workers with increased flexibility and autonomy in time management, asynchronous communication relieves the pressure to respond promptly to emails. This empowerment allows individuals to prioritize tasks according to their schedules and work at their own pace.

Today, remote work has declined from its levels of the pandemic but is still – depending on how broadly one measures it – three to four times as prevalent as it was in 2019. And the percentage of workers who still say they want the option of working from home to some degree is close to half.

How much has remote work increased since COVID? ›

Since early 2020, when the pandemic hit, telework has expanded sharply. Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, and Steven J. Davis estimate that telework accounted for about 50 percent of paid work hours between April and December 2020, compared with 5 percent before the pandemic.

A narrow majority of teleworkers (54%) say working from home neither helps nor hurts with opportunities to be mentored at work. Among those who do see an impact, it's perceived to be more negative than positive: 36% say working from home hurts opportunities to be mentored and 10% say it helps.

Modern remote monitoring software provides employers with a wide range of employee information. It allows them to see exactly what the employee is doing on their work computer, including the websites they're visiting, the messaging apps they're using, and in some cases even what they type via keystroke logging.

A routine might sound boring, but it's a remote worker's best friend. Sticking to a consistent schedule makes a huge difference in work and personal life. Setting regular working hours, allocating time for breaks, and sticking to your schedule can actually help you in productivity and help prevent burnout.

More recently, Wang et al. (2021, p. 33) stated that “employees with higher workload and those who are under more intensive monitoring will experience less procrastination during the period of working from home and, therefore, will have higher levels of performance”.

Challenges in Remote Performance Management

One of the primary challenges is communication. In a remote setting, communication is often asynchronous, making it difficult for managers to provide timely feedback. This can lead to misunderstandings and affect employees' performance.

Our findings from estimations of models with firm-fixed effects suggest that the average productivity effect of allowing remote work is significantly negative, though relatively small in magnitude.