How employers can make good decisions about remote work before the next crisis strikes

After the COVID-19 pandemic, more than one-fifth of U.S. workers who could work remotely did so full-time or at least one day per week. This long-term shift to remote and hybrid work, however, has not been consistent for all employees, and opinions about its benefits and drawbacks continue to divide experts. A study by Babson College researchers Gina O'Connor and Jonathan Sims found that the process used to decide where employees should work is as important as the decision itself.

Four global research and development companies were interviewed between 2021 and 2023, all of which initially mandated remote work during the pandemic's onset in March 2020. Despite similar communication technologies and technical work, each company's approach to arranging employees' work varied significantly based on their organizational culture.

A Stanford study found that the average percentage of paid full days worked from home dropped from 7% shortly before the pandemic began to over 60% shortly after it started, then declined to roughly 30% in the following two years. However, this pattern varied among the four companies studied. For most scientists and technicians, fully remote work lasted between a few weeks and months.

It took 3-15 months for the companies to establish stable work arrangements, sometimes with multiple policy changes. Organizational culture, developed slowly over years, determined how quickly companies could establish new work arrangements and how well employees accepted them. Two companies with hierarchical cultures quickly stabilized work arrangements but struggled with managerial issues when employees felt their concerns were not heard.

In contrast, collaborative companies took longer to decide on policies but encountered less employee pushback. To better prepare for future crises, employers should consider starting the process of developing more flexible cultures before the next disruption occurs.