Two-thirds of business executives believe remote work will continue in some form beyond the pandemic, despite a clear divergence in views over employee productivity when working from home, according to a new report, Reshaping Productivity, by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
While 39% of survey respondents saw an increase in productivity in their organisations since the pandemic forced remote work practices, 32,6% reported a decline in productivity and 28,5% saw no change.
The global survey of more than 360 business executives was conducted last May by The Economist Intelligence Unit to investigate the implications of remote work on organisations, employees and productivity.
The study found a strong correlation between increased productivity and employees’ support for the uptake of digital tools.
“This supports what we’ve been seeing among our own clients managing the effects of the pandemic on their workplaces,” said Gareth Fletcher of Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa.
Fletcher added: “Those that have invested heavily in the right tools to enable their employees to work from home are definitely benefiting in terms of productivity gains, business continuity and resilience, and innovation in the current environment.”
In fact, one in five executives who saw a decrease in productivity in the study said it was because they hadn’t fully implemented the remote working capabilities for effective remote working.
