They discovered, for example, that “sing two different quality metrics we found no impact on quality of home working.” The increase in productivity was not correlated with a decrease in quality. The call center’s “executives worried that allowing employees to work at home, away from the supervision of their team leaders, would lead to a large increase in shirking.” Nevertheless, they conducted a “ninth-month experiment on working from home.” The experiment was conducted carefully, so that “ffice and home workers used the same IT equipment, faced the same work order flow from a common central server, and were compensated under the same pay system.” The result was surprising: “he performance of the home workers went up dramatically, increasing by 13% over the nine months of the experiment.” The authors of the study were careful as well, analyzing the results according to different metrics. ![]() Instead, the NBER found that “Home working led to a 13% performance increase, of which about 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick-days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter working environment).” ![]() The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has conducted a study that showed an increase in productivity, rather than the expected decrease, among call center employees in Shanghai who “were randomly assigned to work from home or in the office for 9 months.” It turns out that working from home isn’t necessarily fatal to productivity. Time lost to commuting and distractions involving other employees in the office can be eliminated with flextime. The Cebr study estimates that the cost reduction of less commuting could be as high as $44.4 billion.Īn employer may say that it is all well and good that flextime could employ those who are currently underemployed or unemployed, but what about productivity? It turns out that flextime may be of benefit with productivity as well, as the commuting example hints. As flextime rises, the hours of lost productivity being stuck in traffic go down. The study found that “69% of people who are currently unemployed or economically inactive (retired, full-time homemaker, carers) would be encouraged to start working if given the opportunity to work flexibly.”Īnother factor in favor of flextime is less commuting. As the Cebr study puts it: “$2.08 trillion coming through the unemployed and economically inactive alone would equate to a 10.2% boost to US GDP.” It is hardly surprising that among those who are insufficiently employed, flextime is very attractive. With flextime, this potential can be tapped. That study’s most notable conclusion: “he total potential US economic gains from a flexible working culture could accrue to approximately $2.36 trillion…per annum.” According to the study, this tremendous gain could result from more flextime employment.įor many employees and potential employees, less or no economic productivity can be the result of, for example, having to care for children or elderly at home, or having a part time job but having more time available for additional work. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), a British economics and business research consultancy, prepared a study for Citrix titled The Potential Economic Impacts of a Flexible Working Culture. One study even shows that a work-at-home schedule actually increased productivity. Not surprisingly therefore, use of flextime is increasing, as more companies offer it as a way of dealing with needs for caregiving to children or the elderly, for example. ![]() In the never-ending quest for top talent, flextime or allowances for working from home are among some of the most desired work options, and as more jobs allow for work anywhere with a phone and an internet connection, flextime is becoming more practicable. What’s more, flexible time, including working from home, is something that appeals to older and younger workers alike. According to recent studies, flexible work options are on the rise.
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