Working (just as well) From Home: British employees adapted to WFH without hitting productivity – with output now HIGHER than before the pandemic, data shows
- Statistics show a rise in productivity in the last quarter of 2021 compared to 2019
- Output per hour worked was said to be 2.3 per cent higher than the 2019 average
- Experts say it shows working from home ‘didn’t really impact productivity much’
Working from home ‘didn’t really impact productivity much’ says one expert as official data suggests workers shifted seamlessly from the office to their homes.
During the last few months of 2021, output per hour overtook that of pre-pandemic levels for the first time, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Although the Omicron variant led to a renewed emphasis on working from home, productivity still increased on the previous quarter, The Times reports.
Bart Van Ark, professor of productivity studies at the University of Manchester, said it was too soon assess the overall impact of working from home.
But he added: ‘I would say we have learned to work from home in a way that avoids significant productivity losses but that’s as far as I would go.
‘Now that we see this sort of improvement in Q4 over Q3 it seems to suggest that move back to work from home [because of Omicron’ didn’t really impact productivity much.’
During the last few months of 2021, output per hour overtook that of pre-pandemic levels for the first time
Estimates from the ONS revealed output per hour worked was 2.3 per cent higher than the 2019 average in the last quarter of 2021.
Output per worker was also 0.8 per cent above 2019 and 1.1 per cent above the last quarter.
Productivity weigh output for each unit of work, gauging a business’s production process.
Total hours worked have remained static over the last month period of 2021. The end of the furlough scheme means around a million furloughed workers had returned to work without any increase in the number of hours worked.
Josh Martin, head of productivity at the ONS, posted on Twitter that the figures suggested a drop in working hours.
He tweeted: ‘Total hours worked in the economy were basically flat between Q3 and Q4 despite one million people coming off furlough.
‘That suggests a fall in average working hours for those not furloughed.’
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