Remote Work, Employee Mix, and Performance

Cevat Giray Aksoy, Nicholas Bloom, Steven Davis, Victoria Marino and Özgüzel, Cem

No 20262, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We study the shift to fully remote work at a large call center in Turkey, highlighting three findings. First, fully remote work increased the share of women—including married women—as well as rural and smaller-town residents. By accessing groups with traditionally lower labor-force participation, the firm was able to increase its share of graduate employees by 14% without raising wages. Second, workforce productivity rose by 10%, reflecting shorter call durations for remote employees. This was facilitated by a quieter home working environment that avoided the background noise present in the office. Third, fully remote employees who received initial in-person training exhibited higher long-run productivity and lower attrition rates. This underscores the advantages of in-person onboarding for fully remote workers.

Keywords: Work from home; Remote work; Workforce; Productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J2 J3 R1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05
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