Working From Home Does Not Negatively Affect Productivity, Study Suggests

May 9, 2022

A research team from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health found that employee productivity does not decline when working from home.

Working from home

The team worked with a Fortune 500 company in Houston to analyze performance data from 264 randomly selected employees. During the study period, the company was forced to close its offices because of flooding from Hurricane Harvey, which required employees to work remotely for an extended period.

They found that although total computer use declined during the hurricane, employees' work behaviors during the seven-month period of working remotely returned to pre-hurricane levels. This finding suggests that remote work does not negatively impact workplace productivity.

IOS Press / Study Data

This study offers important insights into information workers who have become increasingly used to and interested in working remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the future, there will be a greater percentage of the workforce who is involved in some sort of office-style technology work activities," said Mark Benden, who is director of A&M's Ergonomics Center. "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."