For years, many business leaders have resisted remote work, thinking it would lead to lower productivity. But here’s a surprise: A mid-2020 study showed that knowledge workers, software developers, and IT professionals are all more productive when they work from home.
The study defined workplace productivity as spending more time on the right work—not merely being busy. Data from the study showed that compared to people working in the office, remote workers had a 4% increase in average daily time spent on their core work and an 18% decrease in time spent on emails, chats, calls, and meetings—adding up to an annual total per person of 58 more hours spent on core work, and 256 fewer hours spent on communication. That’s a huge difference!