Looking at the data from all the remote work productivity statistics, it is very clear that remote workers are very productive and engaged with their work despite what many people have to say. As time progresses and more people start becoming aware of the different ways you can increase productivity in the comfort of your home, the office work model is likely going to witness a huge decline.
However, each worker is different in their line of work and performs different qualities of work. Can each and every essential and non-essential worker adapt to the remote work model? Moreover, how will corporations and offices perform once they change their mode of work and run operations well if workers work remotely? Below, the article will lay down some statistics that will help understand the answers to these questions.
Statistics on Remote Work Productivity
When you look at some of the data, it shows why some companies are encouraging remote work for their employees. Moreover, there are a bunch of companies that are looking at a flexible or hybrid work model, which means that you can easily switch between on-premise and remote work.
When asked by the employees that went remote in 2020 about their preferred work model, 50 percent of them wanted to stick to the remote model of work. In comparison, only 10 percent of the people were happy to go back to the on-premise work model. This also means that 40 percent of the employees are opting to go hybrid.
Below are five statistics on remote work productivity that showcase data of thousands of employees. There are many reports today on remote work around the world. One of the reasons reports and statistics are so vast and abundant is because it is very easy to extract data from homogenous workers in a workforce.
It is also easy to analyze their time spent on social media, productive applications, unproductive applications, and the workplace applications and servers that they use when they try to complete their jobs. The data is all aggregated and extrapolated data from time-tracking app users.
Social Media Usage
The most common misconception about remote workers is that they are likely to deviate to other applications when they sit down to work. Findings, however, show that they are mostly bouncing around LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. This is not surprising when you take into consideration that LinkedIn is a professional and business-focused media network.
Where on the other hand, YouTube is a vast online video library where you can get all information, and Facebook is essentially an industry giant. That said, employees are not spending as much time on social media as you may think they are.
When it comes to Facebook, employees are spending about 7.5 percent of their workday with Facebook opened in a browser. What is counterintuitive is that social media will actually boost the productivity of workers in most cases. In terms of top applications and websites, 40 percent of the workers spend most of their time on Google chrome.
Chrome is one of the most dominant applications that people use while they are working remotely. Since chrome runs communication apps that are pivotal for running remote work operations, this statistic showed how important it is to use that application and also spoke volumes on remote work productivity. Overall, the social media usage of workers during shift hours showed that remote workers' productivity is increasing instead of declining.
Remote Work vs. On-premise work
Surveys and researchers utilize data, crunch it up, and display it in a way to make you understand remote work productivity statistics. Below, the article will discuss some of the factors that contribute to the increased productivity of remote work.
Time Saved on Commute
For some workers, the long-distance commute is the worst part of their job. Even if the commute is short, it drains plenty of energy that employees could rather expend in the workplace. According to a survey by Airtasker, workers, on average, will save about 8.5 hours a week when they do not commute to work. This is about 408 hours every year that they can spend on rest, recovery, or productivity.
More Focus
People say that you are more productive in offices because it presents you with a dedicated workspace. However, offices can also be places that have plenty of distractions. Think about all the time workers spend on breaks, water cooler talk, and mingling with other coworkers.
In a home environment, there is zero interaction with people, and this decrease in social interaction can lead to an increase in focus. According to a survey, about 70 percent of workers agree that social relationships are more important than work completion. This goes to show that workers are likely to concentrate more on work completion when devoid of any interaction.
Healthier Lifestyle
The time saved on commuting and socializing can be pivotal for workers to remain healthy. It is a known fact that mentally and physically fit workers will provide a better quality of work. Remote workers save enough time to add to their sleep, exercise, and also hobbies.
This means that they are far more capable of handling a heavy workload without burning themselves out. Encouraging workers to adopt physical exercise can be great for all companies. Regular workouts and exercises can help you initiate a workforce that is more active and productive.
Transitioning Your Company to a Remote Model
Many companies have transitioned their work model from an on-premise to a remote model; however, very few have done it correctly. In order to make your remote or hybrid work model work, you have to first make sure that you build an asynchronous communication model.
This communication model allows companies to communicate with their teams and manage it without speaking with them in person. This method can involve emails, instant messaging, documentation. In other words, you need to build a model that streamlines all forms of communication in a single platform so that it makes up for the ease and lack of communication that comes with remote work.
To Conclude
As you can see, all the reports geared towards remote workers' productivity study state that the workers are indeed more efficient when working from home. Hopefully, this clears the questions you have in your mind along the lines of, "are remote workers more productive?"
