Is teleworking still a place in business in 2024?

Established since the health crisis as a new hybrid way of working, the arrival of remote working in our daily lives has changed the habits of employees. Investigations on the subject are multiplying... and contradicting each other! Positive or bad? A look back at the doubts that remain around teleworking!

These undecided bosses on teleworking

Many companies that adopted remote working during the health crisis are going backwards and going back on their decision.

The latest: L'Oréal. Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of the group, says that remote workers do not have ”absolutely no attachment, no passion, no creativity.”. According to him, “it is vital to be in the office” to “meet people”. However, the boss of L'Oréal still allows his teams to work from home for two days per week.

An unthinkable compromise for Elon Musk, boss of Tesla and new purchaser of Twitter (now X). The billionaire's words are divisive: ”Teleworking is no longer eligible. [...] Employees must spend a minimum of 40 hours per week in the office.”  He even goes further, by specifying that ”employees who won't line up may already be thinking of looking for work elsewhere.”

Even the company Zoom recently asked its employees to come back to the office... A delight for a remote work tool! But the latter should only be present two days a week (at least).

And these big bosses are not the only ones who doubt the benefits of teleworking. Those opposed to “full remote” fear that these asynchronous methods could hinder collaboration between team members as well as the embodiment of corporate culture and its sense of belonging.

Is remote working really an advantage?

So should we really doubt the benefits of remote working?

According to the Actineo barometer of the quality of life at work, 72% of employees in 2023 work regularly or occasionally outside their office. This hybrid way of working has become firmly established in our daily lives.

However, 32% of employees would like to return to 100% in-person at work.

For 7 out of 10 employees, the interest in coming to the office comes in particular from moments of conviviality, sharing and creativity. Others also cite disconnecting as more difficult than leaving a face-to-face workstation.

The risks of working from home

One Stanford Institute analysis based on several studies reveal a drop in productivity that can range from 10 to 20%. The following are at issue:

• difficulties in communication and work coordination,
• the deterioration of communication networks and the reduction of new connections,
• the decrease in creativity, in part due to multitasking, rather than total concentration on one person,
• reducing learning, mentoring, and feedback
• discipline and self-control (time spent on the computer for personal reasons or time dedicated to household chores).

Beyond these facts, a more worrying consequence for employees was raised by a study by Live Data Technologies. LRemote workers were 30% less likely to get promoted in 2023, compared to their colleagues on site. And always according to The Wall Street Journal study, 90% of business leaders admit to promoting the advancement of employees who show up.

Teleworking, a necessity for many employees

THE OECD recently conducted a study that aims to focus on the productivity and well-being of employees working remotely. This brings a bit of nuance to the results presented previously, which can be scary.

The researchers observed that the highest productivity of remote workers was correlated with businesses that had the most innovative management practices. The quality of management almost seems to be more important in the productivity of employees than where they perform their duties.

The time spent working from home is also an index of productivity to take into account. This improves during the first few days, reaching its peak on the second day of remote work. However, it then starts to fall as the intensity of remote work increases.

Finally, according to a survey conducted by Mmhmm, 51% of employees felt that working asynchronously or setting their own schedule contributed to their productivity.

Teleworking seems inevitable. Rather than prohibiting it, it is necessary to intelligently support its implementation! Having a professional activity at home can be disruptive at the beginning, so it is essential to allow employees to do so in the best conditions. To meet this need, learning is the ideal solution. Learning to work asynchronously, optimizing your workspace, maximizing your concentration... All of your skills have a real impact on productivity. Learning employees in these practices is an essential building block in building a performance culture in which remote working is essential.

All these studies make you think about the future of teleworking. But you have to be aware of one thing: remote work is not just about productivity. It is an integral part of the well-being of employees and plays a major role in attracting and retaining talent in companies. For example, a study by MonitorRH revealed that 80% of job offers that do not allow remote work do not receive any applications. So do businesses have the opportunity to oppose this hybrid way of working entirely? Above all, employees must be given the choice to be remote or face-to-face to adapt to everyone's needs.

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