Working From Home After the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Current shelter in place regulations, implemented as a response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, present a unique opportunity for businesses. Currently, all businesses except those deemed essential have had to quickly pivot to a complete work-from-home structure. This was a seamless transition for businesses with existing work-from-home policies, but introduced a new challenge to businesses who did not already have such policies. Meetings, training sessions, presentations, daily check-ins, as well as client calls and interviews have moved to online video conferencing platforms. For the time being, this is a universal requirement for all non-essential businesses, but when COVID-19 regulations are lifted, businesses - especially businesses that did not previously offer a work-from-home policy - will be presented with an important choice. Will they continue to offer employees a work-from-home option, or will they return to their previous office-only policy?

Businesses must consider their edge in the current workplace climate. The Bay Area is a hub for cutting edge tech companies that attract the highest level of employee talent. Genentech, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Salesforce are just some of the competitive, top-tier companies who offer generous work-from-home policies. These companies lead the way in setting employee expectations for how a workplace should function. When top candidates interview for new jobs, a company’s work-from-home policy plays a significant role in the employee’s decision to accept a job offer. Without such a policy, a company significantly decreases their relevance to top candidates, and therefore must settle for lower quality employees.

Working from home is a key component of workplace culture. When a company offers this option, it communicates to employees that there is a high value placed on the individual and their work/life balance (Baruch 2000). Working from home allows the employee to have the freedom to work in the environment that they choose, with complete control over their workflow, their organization, and their daily schedule (Harpaz 2002). Because work-from-home hours can be more flexible than in a traditional working model, the employee is also more readily available to help with, and participate in their family life (Baruch 2000). This has the potential to lower stress levels and increase the employee’s feelings of control and autonomy. This can support and even improve mental health. Additionally, this flexible work-from-home schedule might even have the potential to increase the gender balance within the workplace. If females are traditionally caregivers at home for their children, they might not be able to participate in a traditional nine to five job. If they are allowed to work-from-home, and can shift some job responsibilities to early morning hours, or to late night hours, they can still care for their children while thriving at work (Sullivan 2006).

Working from home also has the potential to increase productivity. When an employee works from home, their total number of ‘hours on task’ increases each day because their commute is eliminated. The time that would have been spent in the car, train, or bus to and from work each day can be spent on productive, work-related tasks. Additionally, working from home has the potential to eliminate distraction to the employee. In an office setting, an employee might take several breaks from a task when people drop by their office to ask a question or start a conversation. These types of distractions are eliminated at home (Harpaz 2002). As an added benefit, working from home has even been shown to provide physical health benefits for employees (Pierson 2006). Finally, working from home has positive environmental impacts, by reducing automobile, bus, and train emissions (Harpaz 2002).

Despite the many benefits of working from home, employees cannot work from home entirely. Certain elements of workplace productivity and culture are strongest in person. Group dynamics are an example. Working in groups requires ease of communication between group members, but also perception of group members’ body language, including facial expressions and hand gestures. Additionally, existing in the same physical space as the other members in one’s group fosters a sense of community and comradery that is impossible to accomplish using a video conferencing platform. Building strong group dynamics when every participant is in a separate environment cannot occur at a high level.

Apprenticeship type models of teaching and learning must also occur in person. When a new employee joins a company, they must learn their new role as well as how the company functions. They become an apprentice to an existing employee, learning from that existing employee by taking on more tasks until they become independent in their new position. In person interaction is vital to this learning method. If attempted virtually, this model of learning would be diminished to providing the new employee instructions either verbally or in written form over a video or phone call. While some positions, such as computer programming, can thrive using an online training model, most other roles benefit from in person employee training.

Peer learning and mentoring are other forms of learning that must function in person to be most effective. Peer learning models such as Peer Led Team Learning, Peer Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning, Problem Based Learning, and near-peer models of learning all provide learners the opportunity to work in small groups on a common task or problem. An important part of each of these models is the interpersonal interactions that occur within small groups (Duncan et al 2000, Topping 2005, Weaver et al. 2006). Although individuals can interact in group form online, or on the phone, important aspects of interactions are lost. Body language, facial expressions, and ease of conversation are important in developing relationships in a group, establishing group dynamics, roles and responsibilities, and in understanding when certain members of the group are confused. In near-peer models of learning, the perceived degree of ‘relatability’ of the instructor is vital to the success of the learning model (Hall et al. 2014, Anderson et al. 2015). In person, interpersonal interactions are vital for this relatability to be recognized and accepted. If group learning or problem solving are important in the workplace environment, substantial in person interaction should be required.

Promotions, raises, and other performance-based rewards are other workplace phenomena that require some amount of in person work. If all employees work from home all of the time, it is easy for individuals to get lost, and for their individual contributions to go unnoticed. Individual employee performance can blur together with other members of the team when check-ins are online or over the phone. When employees are seen in person, in the office, it is easier for stand-out performances to be noticed, and to be rewarded.

In conclusion, there are many factors for a business to consider after the COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted. Businesses who previously had a work-from-home policy will continue to do so, but businesses who did not offer such a policy must decide whether to offer one going forward. For the reasons described above, it is important that employees be given at least a partial work-from-home option. Offering such a policy will not only increase employee satisfaction and contribute to employee health, but it will also give the company a competitive edge in the current workplace climate. Although the benefits of working from home are substantial, some workplace functions must occur in person. Employees must work with each other, in person, to maximize the effectiveness of group work, interpersonal relationships, training, and mentoring. For these reasons, when the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, businesses will need to assess what their goals are for in person work, and in person hours should be utilized strategically. Tasks that an employee can effectively complete individually should be reserved for work-from-home hours. Group work, job training, group problem solving, and mentoring should be reserved for in person hours. A productive solution would allow teams of employees to work from home 2-3 days per week, and work in the office the other 2-3 days per week. Teams of employees should have the same weekly schedule to maximize the benefits of in-person interactions. This means that all members of the team should be in the office on the same days and work from home on the same days. In the future, businesses might begin to share office space and alternate days of the week in which employees work in the office in order to save on real estate costs, rent, and utilities. Working from home is a necessary component of present day work culture, and will only become more important as time goes on. Successfully implementing such policies while also strategically using employees’ in person hours for group related work, learning, and problem solving will be vital in a business’s future success.  Businesses who can incorporate such policies now will be better equipped to tackle everyday, and also extraordinary circumstances in the future.