"Hybrid work is not harming effectiveness"

More laundry, sports and entertainment and less work - the shift to remote work following the Covid pandemic has dramatically changed the way employees use their time. A new study by the New York Fed reveals the truth behind the flexibility of telecommuting.

Fed researchers found that with remote employees there is a significant decrease in time spent working even when taking into account the commute travel time. In addition, they saw that there was a significant increase in leisure time and sleep. Younger employees spend more time at social events, eating in restaurants or hanging out in bars and exercising. Older employees, on the other hand, spend more time doing activities related to child care and household maintenance.

Work from home

In the U.S., almost half of the employees (45%) work, at least part of the time, from home and 15% of them only work remotely. The time Americans save commuting to work amounts to 60 million hours each day and the Fed researchers wanted to know how the employees use the time that was freed up. They found, as mentioned, that employees allocate the travel time they saved to leisure activities and sleep and that they have reduced total working hours.

These findings are not surprising. In the discussion on the subject in the group "Problems in High-Tech" for example, employees confessed that they do more laundry, take naps, and do errands during normal work hours. Despite this, many employers in Israel allow work from home at least part of the time. According to a survey by EER Global, almost 90% of global companies work in a hybrid model and almost all companies that allow remote work (95%) intend to continue to allow it. This is despite the fact that employers are aware that not all time is used for work.

"We were never big believers in counting hours because, even when working from the office, you can waste time on things that are not super effective," says Gal Shaul, one of the founders of Augury, an industry 4.0 company which employs 450 people.

"We look at impact and we don't see that hybrid work is harming effectiveness. In the end, we strongly believe that there is only 'life' and not a clear separation between work and life. So, if you are able to achieve some kind of balance that suits you, then working hours are not important. In my opinion, when people are connected to the task they get results."

Dvir Milo, GM IL and CTO at Home365, says that in his opinion working from home offers many temptations but it is worth it. "True, there are many temptations: errands, sports - but in the end the balance between personal life and work is a very important thing and when working from home the work is spread over more hours a day. I believe employees are responsible people and want to provide value. It is very easy to quantify output in a software company and I don't feel like productivity is decreasing. It is true that less work is done from home, but in the modern labor market it is part of a complex of things: it increases the motivation and desire of the employees and, in the end, productivity increases."

Also, working in a hybrid model allows companies to employ people who live further away from Tel Aviv. "Today, part of the set of expectations that an employee comes with is also to work several days from home. As an employer, I am happy about this because it gives me the opportunity to offer positions to people who otherwise I could not give a chance to," he says.

The EER Global survey, in which 376 HR managers from global companies, mainly in high-tech (with a minimum of 25 employees to over 1,000 employees) participated, also revealed that employers are still interested in seeing employees in the office. Therefore, 52% of them enforce office presence for at least part of the weekdays. The most common frequency of coming to the office is three days a week (40%). In almost a quarter of the companies employees can work three days a week from home, in a fifth of the companies the frequency varies by department or team and in 13% of the companies employees work from home only one day a week. Half of the companies have one day when everyone comes to the office.

The possibility of remote work depends on the position and in 60% of the companies there are positions that require regular arrival at the office. According to the data, 51% are administrative positions, 36% technical positions, 11% management, 2% sales and another 2% working in capsules. In 69% of the companies, management is not obliged to come to the office more than employees.

The survey also shows that 52% of the companies measure goals for each employee. Outputs are measured in 28% of the companies according to the number of completed tasks; 4% according to the time it took the employee to finish the tasks and in 43% - outputs are not measured at all.

To encourage employees to come to the office, some companies produce reports with the names of those who deviated from the policy, others hold round tables and enrichment sessions; fun days and various events or joint breakfasts.

"The U.S. findings reinforce the data we are seeing in global companies located in Israel," says Miri Gal-Bort, joint CEO, EER Global. "People have changed their work habits, they are adapting to a new lifestyle and are even deriving value from it. They have more time to focus on work, time is saved standing in traffic, hallway conversations, etc. and they can manage their time more efficiently, in favor of leisure activities and family. In my opinion, it is the right thing to do, allowing people to manage their time, that's the direction the world is going. Organizations that don't understand this are less attractive as employers. I call on employers: let go and put more trust in your employees. It will pay off for you."