A Texas A&M University School of Public Health research team decided to take a closer look at one of the most controversial questions of the moment.
There are many who are debating whether those who are working from home are more productive or less productive. As with most debates of this nature, there are vociferous folks on both sides who want to know more about the facts.
The pandemic has placed many of us in a position to explore working at home more thoroughly than ever before and that’s understandable. Now that the worst seems to be behind us (for the moment!) it is time for many workers to return to the office. Meanwhile, there are a wide range of employers who are wondering if they are doing the right thing by asking them to come up.
In the study, researchers worked alongside a Fortune 500 company in Houston to find out more about the latest performance data. 264 employees were selected at random for the study. The company in question had to close its offices when Hurricane Harvey arrived, giving them the perfect chance to analyze the working habits of their employees when they were not on the premises.
Once these employees were given the chance to work remotely for a stretch of time, the comparing and contrasting began. During the hurricane, computer usage declined. Other than that, their productivity remained at or near pre-hurricane levels. These findings suggest that working remotely does not hinder productivity anywhere near as much as people expected.
Now that workers have gotten used to working from home, we could be in the midst of a major change. These are the insights that are going to be most important to employers as they look to assess the current state of affairs.
“In the future, there will be a greater percentage of the workforce who is involved in some sort of office-style technology work activities,” says Mark Benden, the Director of A&M’s Ergonomics Center, according to Texas A&M Today.
He went on to say, “Almost all of the study’s employees were right back up to the same level of output as they were doing before Hurricane Harvey. This is a huge message right now for employers because we’re having national debates about whether or not employees should be able to work remotely or in a hybrid schedule.”