Has Innovation Suffered from "Work from Home?"

It is hard to measure either the innovation or productivity of office or knowledge work. But one study of European workers and managers suggests innovation might not be faring so well under mass work-from-home conditions. At least, that is what people believe. 

Such “where do we work?” issues shape the fortunes of enterprise application, infrastructure and connectivity service provider revenue expectations. But the ultimate balance of work locations is yet to be settled. 

Employees often like working from home. “However, the cost seems to be a loss of sense of purpose, which at work, is largely driven through strong and cohesive relationships and seeing how your tasks have impact on others,” says Dr. Michael Parke, professor at the Wharton School of University of the Pennsylvania, and leader of the study team.  “Both of these are more easily accomplished when people work co-located and are more challenging when working virtually.”

source: Microsoft 

Most respondents and managers do not believe productivity is the biggest risk of mass scale work from home policies. 

When asked about the biggest challenges associated with working remotely, the top responses among employees were 

• maintaining company culture

• maintaining team cohesion

• coping with increased silos 

Among leaders, 39 percent say they struggle to maintain a strong and unified team culture. In 2019, some 56 percent of leaders said their companies are highly innovative. Just 40 percent believe that is true in 2020. 

“It’s only logical to expect to see a drop in innovation, as it’s hard for new ideas to thrive in an environment where people feel more disconnected from their employer and their teams,” says Microsoft. 

“The key takeaway from all of this is that the success of teamwork in a more hybrid world goes beyond just having the right technology tools. Innovation is fueled when people feel empowered to connect with colleagues, take smart risks and speak up when they have new ideas,” Microsoft says. 

As almost always is the case, leaders fare better than laggards. “We also found that organizations with innovative cultures see more of the benefits and less of the costs with remote or hybrid work,” said Parke. 

Employees say WFH means they are wasting less time than they did in the office, but not as much as you might think. 

In 2019, survey respondents reported that 52 percent  of their working day was wasted because of interruptions; meetings and calls with no clear agenda; and searching for information.In 2020, remote workers said 41 percent of the day was wasted.

One might ask whether productivity and innovation can be clearly separated, though one might say productivity is simply a measure of efficiency, while innovation is more a measure of effectiveness, in any industry where “creating new things matters.” On the other hand, innovation also can be process innovation, which contributes to efficiency.

In the end, it might be nearly impossible to separate innovation from productivity.