Has Information Worker Productivity Suffered from Work from Home?

Nobody really knows how to measure knowledge or information worker productivity. One method, used by Aternity, is tracking business application use by workers at home. Using that measure alone, productivity in the early days of the pandemic declined in some countries and increased in some countries.

Perhaps more significantly, a “productivity hit” has continued through July 2020. 

“The main takeaway from Aternity’s latest data is that a ‘productivity tax’ is affecting enterprises deploying long-term remote work strategies,” Aternity says. “In countries where the remote work share remains at peak levels, including the United States and parts of Europe, employee productivity continues to fall.”

source: Aternity 

“In comparison, overall productivity is rising in European countries where the share of in-office work is increasing, showing that returns to the office are benefiting companies from an overall productivity standpoint,” Aternity says. 

While North America continues to have the highest share of remote work (85 percent), productivity decreased by 14 percent between March 26 and July 9, 2020 Aternity notes. 

In Europe, in-office work began to increase in early-mid May. Overall productivity increased by two percent between March 26 and July 9, with a sharper rise corresponding to the return to the office, Aternity says. 

Using only the “time spent on work applications” measure, productivity between January and March 2020 decreased in Europe and the United States, but increased in Canada. 

Keep in mind this is an input measure, not an output measure. All Aternity claims is that time spent using work apps either increased or decreased. The decrease in usage is defined as “lower productivity,” while an increase is defined as “higher productivity.”