COMP NEWS – Yet another survey indicates that employees with hybrid work schedules are more happy and more productive than their full-time, in-office counterparts.

Hybrid working has become widespread in many parts of the world since the pandemic. Between April and May 2023, the third wave of the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, an international academic research collaboration based in the United States, asked more than 42,000 people across 34 countries about where they worked (see go.nature.com/4elh7h5). The results show that, although 67% of people work fully on-site, more than 25% now have hybrid working arrangements, with another 8% working fully from home. Home-working rates are highest for graduates, and are particularly high in the English-speaking world. The most common pattern of hybrid working is three days a week in the office and two days at home.

 

The latest study is the first randomized controlled trial of the benefits of this sort of hybrid working, according to its authors: economists Nicholas Bloom at Stanford University in California and Ruobing Han at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen in China, and James Liang, chairperson and co-founder of the online travel company Trip.com in Shanghai, China. More than 1,600 graduate employees of Trip.com were randomly assigned to one of two groups for a six-month period, with members of one group working five days a week in an office, and those of the other working three days a week in the office and two at home.

 

The authors found that the hybrid workers generally had increased job satisfaction and reduced resignation rates, and were as productive as those who worked entirely in-person, as measured by performance reviews. The reduction in resignation rates was particularly pronounced for those with longer commutes and for women. Reduced attrition rates were not seen for managers, who made up one-quarter of the trial sample — perhaps because managers rely more heavily than non-managers on coordinating people and forming social connections, which tends to be easier to do in person.

To read more about the survey on hybrid working, click here.

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