Has Homeworking Been a Success?

There have been many reports that the pandemic has proven the effectiveness and  productivity of home working.

However, a lot of these reports were based on surveys of employees who say they feel more productive when working from home.

I can see the advantages for employees of the flexibility that home working brings – the lack of a  commute, the ability to provide childcare, etc.

However, the lack of real engagement with work colleagues is bound to harm creativity snd innovation – perhaps not in the short term, but in the longer term, the lack of cross pollenisation of ideas turns off the creativity tap.

So, organisations will do OK, and maybe even thrive for a while … but they should be aware that new ideas are less likely to emerge and develop on Zoom.

And, of course, just because employees feel productive, it doesn’t mean they are.

We need structured research involving proper productivity measures before we can confirm productivity gains or losses from home working.