Is Work From Home Working For Business?

According to the Pew Research Center, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent National Compensation survey, only 7% of workers in the U.S. were working from home before 2020. Today - this number is closer to 60%+...

SHRM’s COVID-19 Business Index says that 64% of US employees are working from home during COVID-19, and Gallup's research suggests that about 62% of working Americans are doing so remotely.

Here is how Accenture's CTO, Paul Daugherty, put it in a recent article from the New York Times;

“If you, six months ago, had said, ‘We’re going to give you a few weeks’ notice, and then you’re going to have your whole workforce working from home,’ I would have said: ‘You’re insane. There’s no way it’s possible.’”

In late 2019, about 10% of Accenture's 500,000 employees had work from home privileges. By mid-March, nearly 100% had been sent home to work remotely.

While your company may or may not be 500,000 employees strong, it's likely this trend applied equally to many of us.

**Before I go on, let's not forget to take a second here to acknowledge the amazing work being done by all essential workers in healthcare, grocery, utilities, and so many other imperative industries, who cannot work from home... Thank you all! You are, indeed, heroes.**

For the rest of us - What is the next move? How well is working from home really working for business? And, now that everyone has had a taste - will any valuable, talented people WANT to go back to the office?

Gartner recently found that 74% of companies surveyed expect some of their employees to continue working remotely after the pandemic ends.

A Citrix-One-Poll study declares that 69% of questioned employed people reported that they are more focused and productive when working from home than they are in the office.

So, it's clear that this new reality may stick around, even long after this pandemic has run its course.

What will this mean for the bottom line?

Several studies have calculated that employees working from home save their BUSINESS as much as $12,000 a year for each half time WFH employee (20hrs/wk at home - 20hrs/wk at the office).

Employees themselves can look to save as much as, and more than, $4,000 per year on average; by spending less on gas, food, auto maintenance, UBER/Taxis, public transportation, etc.

Here's a good one; in 2013-2014, “Federal employees in Washington, who worked from home during only four official snow days, ended up saving the government an estimated $32 million.” according to the 2019 Telework Report to Congress...

Thirty. Two. Million. Dollars. --- In four days.

Again, according to the New York Times:

"In 2012, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, headquartered in Northern Virginia, began a program allowing patent examiners to live anywhere. For those who chose to work remotely, productivity rose by 4.4 percent, according to a study last fall by Prithwiraj Choudhury, a professor at Harvard Business School, and two colleagues. A 2015 case study by Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, and others found that when one Chinese travel agency assigned a random group of employees to work remotely for nine months, their productivity went up by 13 percent, generating an increase of roughly $2,000 in annual profits per employee. (It later rose even higher, to 20 percent.) The company’s chief executive had actually expected productivity to decrease; he figured the shift would yield savings that made up for the lost output."

To translate - not only did the costs of 'housing' employees in an office decline and save these companies money, but productivity actually rose, increasing revenue... A clear win-win for all.

So, costs are down. Productivity is up. People seem happier. But, is anything lost when one removes a central meeting place from the work culture?

Many believe that while some important things can be lost... they don't need to be...

For instance, we know that face-to-face time creates friendships, and lasting professional networks. Can that be replaced with a Zoom call? Some things just can't be communicated over a webcam... However - many have found that monthly, or even quarterly get-togethers can solve this, as relationships are primed enough by the video conferencing that an occasional face-to-face can solidify these connections.

What about accountability? Can a manager really ever know what his team is up to during the day?

Perhaps there is a lesson here; Many believe that there is a benefit to having had the 'eyes' removed from over their shoulders. And, they believe that they are now only graded on true outcomes produced - not silly, minute-to-minute individual tasks. This allows employees to be creative, and put efforts in where (and how) they know that they can be strongest - without the ineffective demands from micromanagement.

So, while many of us are scared by the prospect of the inevitable extinction of daily office culture... it is indeed inevitable. The best advice is to stop worrying and resisting the change, and instead empower your employees to help the entire company adapt to our new, remote world.

I'll see you all next Zoom call. Stay healthy!

-Patrick James Kernan 10.1.2020