Work from Home & Productivity: Evidence from Personnel & Analytics Data on IT Professionals

Michael Gibbs, Friederike Mengel and Christoph Siemroth

No 14336, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using personnel and analytics data from over 10,000 skilled professionals at a large Asian IT services company, we compare productivity before and during the work from home [WFH] period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Total hours worked increased by roughly 30%, including a rise of 18% in working after normal business hours. Average output did not significantly change. Therefore, productivity fell by about 20%. Time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, but uninterrupted work hours shrank considerably. Employees also spent less time networking, and received less coaching and 1:1 meetings with supervisors. These findings suggest that communication and coordination costs increased substantially during WFH, and constituted an important source of the decline in productivity. Employees with children living at home increased hours worked more than those without children at home, and suffered a bigger decline in productivity than those without children.

Keywords: work hours; telecommuting; remote working; productivity; pandemic; COVID-19; collaboration; working from home; work time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D2 M5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2021-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-hrm, nep-lma and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (49)

Published - published in: Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics, 2023, 1 (1), 7 - 41

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Journal Article: Work from Home and Productivity: Evidence from Personnel and Analytics Data on Information Technology Professionals (2023)
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