Dr Michelle Dickinson: nanotechnologist on new research examining the benefits of hybrid work environments

The COVID-19 pandemic substantially changed how many office-based workers worked, and overnight working from home became the norm for millions of people.   Since then, many businesses have tried to force workers back into to the office full-time believing that staff can’t be trusted to work effectively from home. This is often against the wishes of their staff who enjoy life without a commute and embrace their ability to keep up with household tasks by doing laundry on their lunch break.  So, what should companies be doing to help them to remain profitable?  New research out in the journal Nature has found the answer that works best for both businesses and their staff.  The researchers took 1600 graduate workers all who worked at the same large travel booking company and studied them over a six month period.  The participants were randomly split into two groups, one group was required to work from the office every day, the other group was allowed to work from home on Wednesdays and Fridays.  The study found that even though their managers might have believed that the group working from home weren’t working as hard, there was no measurable difference in the productivity of workers in either group as measured by performance reviews.  There were however many benefits found in the hybrid workers, the majority of which reported they had increased job satisfaction. The data also showed a 33 percent reduction in resignation rates for the hybrid workers compared to the in-office staff. This reduction in resignation rates was significantly higher for staff members that had long commutes (52 percent) and for women (54 percent).  The researchers calculated that on average, it cost the company $20,000 (USD) in recruitment and training for every staff member that quit, so being able to retain staff by giving them a hybrid work environment could save them millions of dollars.  The study concluded that if you want to keep your organisations productive and profitable while keeping your staff happy, hybrid working is the best solution.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.