The majority of German companies do not see any loss of productivity due to home office or hybrid working. In a survey published on Tuesday by the Munich Ifo Institute, 60 percent said that they expected productivity to remain the same if they returned completely to the office. Another 8 percent even expect productivity to fall in this case. However, 32 percent of companies also expect greater efficiency in the office.
This almost third of companies base their expectations primarily on more efficient coordination and communication as well as more knowledge sharing in the office. Less distraction and easier management of teams are also mentioned. Home office skeptics often estimate the impact as high: 58 percent assume at least 10 percent higher productivity in the office. This includes almost 9 percent who even expect an increase of 30 percent or more.
The group of companies that assume that their employees are more productive at home or in a hybrid manner, on the other hand, justify this with more flexible scheduling of working hours, less distraction, higher job satisfaction and a better work-life balance.
When viewed by economic sector, the differences are not that big: the most positive assessment of home office and hybrid working is in retail, where only 28 percent of companies expect an improvement in the office. The most negative is in wholesale, where 39.5 percent say this. The construction industry, the service sector and the manufacturing industry are close to the overall average.
“The majority of positive experiences with productivity are an important reason why home offices have become established in many German companies,” says Ifo researcher Mathias Dolls. According to previously published Ifo data, only 8 percent of companies recently planned more restrictive home office rules 9,000 companies were surveyed for the survey in August. (dpa)