Studies on productivity in the home office: Why the results are often questionable

The debate is not abating: does working from home make people more productive or not? The studies on this are as diverse as employees disagree. A survey by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) found that the majority of companies have either noticed positive effects or no effects at all. Surveys by the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research (Ifo) take a different view. Ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour says working from home is a productivity killer, especially for full-time employees.

Both organizations represent many research institutions that study productivity in the home office. They are probably among the most cited sources in Germany. On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that both institutes only work on the basis of individual opinions. It is not known which actual key figures were used to measure the productivity of the respondents in their everyday work. For Veit Hartmann from the Institute for Applied Industrial Engineering (Ifaa), the problem is.

Home office: study results often questionable

Veit Hartmann and his colleague Ufuk Altun have conducted a meta-study to examine how meaningful such research is. The research assistant explains: "The studies we evaluated, which deal with the topic in a broader sense, operationalize productivity less in terms of measurement concepts and methods in order to arrive at reliable statements, but primarily rely on subjective perceptions and experiences." In addition, they often only reflect snapshots.

According to Veit Hartmann, it can be assumed that there are indeed tasks that can be done better in a home office. Specialists and managers would report this in many cases in a comprehensible manner. He cites the creation of presentations at home as an example. However, the human factor must always be taken into account. "The suitability of employees for a home office varies considerably, both in terms of inclination, skills and domestic conditions," Hartmann continues.

In addition to the survey methodology, Hartmann also criticizes the fact that the jobs and tasks are often not comparable. "It would make sense, for example, to look at a selection of activities in the office and in the home office based on comparable content conditions and requirements from a productivity perspective." At the moment, he has the impression that "apples are being compared with pears, and that this is also the case in the office and the home office." This has a huge impact on the informative value.

In order to find the activities that are well suited to a home office, the Ifaa recently developed a tool as part of a research project that can be used to analyze the flexibility potential of workplaces in terms of time and location. The tool is specially designed for companies, is freely available for download together with a self-check, and answers the question: How many hours can an employee work mobile and time-flexibly due to their work tasks?

Companies rely on hybrid rules

According to Statista Research, around a quarter of employees in Germany worked at least partially from home in 2023. However, there are big differences depending on the industry. In the IT services industry, three quarters of employees worked fully or partially from home, while in the healthcare sector only around six percent had this option. Recently, however, there have been increasing reports that companies are increasingly relying on attendance days for employees.

The IT company Amazon provides a particularly sensational example. While CEO Andy Jassy described location-independent work as successful during and after the corona crisis, he is now making a complete U-turn. The tech company's workforce is to appear in the office on all five working days a week from January 2025. Over the past few months, considerable frustration among employees has repeatedly become public.

Unlike Amazon, however, most employers are now pushing for a hybrid rule. Companies such as Deutsche Bank, the software group SAP and the retail company Otto rely on a mix of home office and office. While some managers specify the days their employees will be present, others leave it up to their teams to decide which days they will work at home and which days they will work on site.