Work from Home and Productivity: Evidence from Personnel and Analytics Data on Information Technology Professionals

Michael Gibbs, Friederike Mengel and Christoph Siemroth

Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, 2023, vol. 1, issue 1, 7 - 41

Abstract: We study employee productivity before and during the working-from-home period of the COVID-19 pandemic, using personnel and analytics data from over 10,000 skilled professionals at an Indian technology company. Hours worked increased, output declined slightly, and productivity fell 8%–19%. We then analyze determinants of productivity changes. An important source is higher communication costs. Time spent on coordination activities and meetings increased, while uninterrupted work hours shrank considerably. Employees networked with fewer individuals and business units inside and outside the firm and had fewer one-to-one meetings with supervisors. The findings suggest key issues for firms in implementing remote work.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/721803 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/721803 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
Working Paper: Work from Home & Productivity: Evidence from Personnel & Analytics Data on IT Professionals (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jpemic:doi:10.1086/721803

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().