We telecommute better and better: remote productivity has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic

One of the main arguments used by those who are against teleworking is that it entails a loss of productivity with respect to work in the office, as we already have in Xataka. And, to a certain extent, they have been right until recently. But not because we are more distracted at home, but because many professionals they had never done it before and had to adapt to their new professional environment, as indicated by the data of the last report from the WFH Research study group.

This document indicates that in the last six months the productivity of teleworkers has increased exponentially and professionals who work remotely would be up to 3% more efficient than at the beginning of 2021. The authors of the research attribute this improvement to investment in more appropriate tools to perform professional functions at home, training and adaptation to this new reality.

“The survey shows that efficiency increased approximately 5 to 8% during the pandemic. Companies attribute this to investment, learning and adaptation: better teams, better management practices and better organization at home”, explains Nicholas Bloom, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at Stanford University, on his Twitter account.

The research also reveals that workers who have tried telecommuting in the pandemic are increasingly betting for a hybrid model in which working remotely two days a week is imposed on the other mixed modalities and full remote.

To carry out this study, the researchers have collected monthly surveys since 2019, between 2,500 and 5,000 of them each month. The profile surveyed was broad, workers between 20 and 64 years old with annual incomes of more than 10,000 dollars. The research is a joint effort by Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.