How Much is Too Much With WFH?

“How many hours should I require my staff to be in the office per week – 2 or 3?”

I am a firm believer in 2.78.

Or maybe 0.

Possibly 5.

😊

This question comes up a lot with teams I work with. Any of those options can be marvelous or disastrous in terms of productivity and culture. The key isn’t to use the perfect number, but rather not to institute arbitrary policies. Let the actual function of the job and needs of the organization dictate the policy; experiment; and articulate the reason behind your policy.

There have been some good studies on hybrid workplaces, and while it can be easy to fixate on the number that worked for the employers in each study (and misleading headlines don’t help!), the study authors themselves actually stress three other takeaways – (1) Hybrid workplaces can be effective. (2) Tenure, industry, company history with remote working, how you think about productivity, etc. can all influence the measured effectiveness of remote work/in-office work. (3) You will need to experiment to find what is right for your staff.

Worth noting too, the studies that dive deep into productivity that I‘ve seen don’t take into account the productivity gains and losses related to attracting/retaining staff with WFH policies.

So what is an organization to do?

1)      Consider what success measures you want to track and capture some baseline information.

2)      Consider what schedule works for your organization based on what you are seeking to accomplish, and get staff input on your proposal. Watch out for whether a policy shift will be particularly harmful to any subsets of employees.

3)      Refine your proposal based on staff input.

4)      Test.

The magic number is the one that works for your organization…for now.