Nick Bloom: Profitability, Performance, Retention | Work 20XX

Nick Bloom had a student at 美国斯坦福大学 , who owned a company based in Hong Kong, paying a fortune to lease office space. He was curious. If people worked from home, we assume they'll fall victim to the fridge, TV, or bed, and productivity will fall. Question is, will the loss in productivity be more than offset by the savings not having to pay Hong Kong rents for said employee?

So they did a test. Productivity didn't go down, it went up 13% for those that got picked to work from home. Employee satisfaction went up, attrition fell by 50%. Sick days decreased. It was all good, and the start of Nick's deep dive into the topic, starting the 'Work from Home Research Institute' to further the research in the field, including a longitudinal research study, "Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes" (SWAA).

The Ctrip study was conducted in 2010, and published in the "Quarterly Journal of Economics" in 2015. The rate of adoption of remote and hybrid work was slow. And then COVID hit, and everyone needed to know more about working from home, and hybrid work arrangements.

Like Jack (John) M Nilles 1973 ground breaking study, another research piece affirming the many benefits of more flexible working arrangements.

Nick Bloom: Profitability, Performance, Retention | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick

Enjoy the full Length Conversation on YouTube - Spotify - Transcript and Show Notes - or wherever you podcast

or this collection of curated clips.

National Emergency

It was a national emergency, we had to figure it out - Nick Bloom

It starts with the data, so I always inquire about the survey process itself. What to know what academic rigor looks like? Why should one always check the source and process? A small sample of the lengths (and expense) taken to make sure the sample data is representative of the larger data set. Just because it's in print, doesn't make it true. Check the source. And even better, check the process.

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What color is Grass?

If you look across the US, company by company, we see three groups, 60% of people that have to come in every day, that's actually the biggest group. 30% are hybrid. And the remaining 10% are fully remote. - Nick Bloom

Team level agreements What makes sense at the team level? One size doesn't fit all, and we're way past the days of 'average.' What makes sense to accomplish the task at hand? General purpose RTO commands aren't working. Nick's got his finger on the pulse of the data

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Profitable

They're both very profitable.?Hybrid is about recruitment, retention ... people love it.?Fully remote, you may lose a bit on productivity, but you save a ton on costs - Nick Bloom

They're more profitable. For all the goodness that comes with a more flexible workforce, the bottom line is the bottom line, and both hybrid and remote work styles are more profitable than their full-time in-office alternatives.

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Surveillance

The knee-jerk reaction is to install horrible surveillance software. I mean, that stuff is creepy and awful. I'd never advise it - Nick Bloom

Align performance incentives to what your customers pay you for, output of goods and services. Not office badge swipes or minutes in meetings. Output evaluation or performance evaluation, whatever you want to call it

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Rear View Mirror

The debate around working from home feels like people are driving down the street looking in the rearview mirror. You can do it, but it's not the best way to drive - Nick Bloom

The office used to contain the tools we needed to get work doneFrom the data (in the file drawers) to the typewriter to the mail system and fax machine. Not so much anymore, and with a pandemic-powered boost, the investment in the next great wave of remote enabling technologies, is just beginning. The direction is clear, forward.

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Professional

The future classic professional manager is probably going to be in a couple of days a week, a lot of meetings, presentations, lunches, training events, maybe on the road for another day a week, the other couple of days they're working from home. Most people actually want that - Nick Bloom

Digital Work, digital workflows, digital information distribution. Spend valuable time together building trust, strengthening bonds, tightening the team, and understanding nuance. Many were already working this way. We've just formalized it so the Real Estate team can begin the reconfigure.

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Flexibility, Agency

People are deciding to take a bit of leisure in the week and they're making up for it on the weekends - Nick Bloom

Or course they are, because the efficiency deltas can be HUGE! Not to mention happiness and engagement when I can incorporate my work life into my broader set of priorities. The benefit is increased presence in every setting. Manager to outputs, not inputs

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Choice vs Coordination

Choice versus coordination is like an epic medieval battle. You have the two forces amassed on either side. I have actually changed my mind. Its like that Keynes thing, When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir? And it feels kind of like that - Nick Bloom

Choice vs Coordination. The data is in. Team Level Agreements (wherever that logical organizational layer is) provide a great solution to coordination. I can hear Brian Elliott cheering from San Francisco. Top-level mandates, not so much. Nick's been collecting and monitoring this data since the Global Emergency was Declared. Based on the data, he's updated his position and changed his mind.

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Pay Rates - by Geo or Skill?

The direction of travel as I see it and as I talk to firms is trying to minimize localized pay to make life easier - Nick Bloom

The talent market continues to evolve. Pay by Geo, (how many scales), pay by skill? Nick shared a few very illustrative stories on the challenge. He's also collecting data on the topic

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Remote Work Conference

Q - What's the Remote Work Conference? A - The weird and wonderful effects of work-from-home. It's going to be, live-streamed, so anyone is welcome - Nick Bloom

The future will be live-streamed. 7 topics, 24 presentations - Managing Remote Work- PhD Lightening Talks - Gender- Worker Productivity & Preferences - Effects on the City - Finance of Remote Work - Looking forward

Remote Work Conference - Click Here

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Thanks again Nick. Love when the market finally comes to you.

Full Length Conversation

Nick Bloom: Profitability, Performance, Retention | Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick

Enjoy the full Length Conversation on YouTube - Spotify - Transcript and Show Notes - or wherever you podcast