Research Hit: Working from Home May be Stifling Innovation
New research shows that working from home produces less innovative ideas
Isn’t this due to less “watercooler conversations”?
Yes, or rather, random interactions of any kind.
There are many assumptions about fostering innovation but also lots of unfounded opinions also. The work from home, hybrid vs. office debate can get heated. Most companies have post-pandemic adopted a hybrid model: part office, and part work from home.
But what is important is to be able to get quality data in from these different models. Research has shown differing results: generally working from home is less stressful and for most people is just as productive (our own data in 2020 showed the same). That’s obviously a good thing.
But back to this study by Michael Gibbs and colleague of Essex University, it followed 48’000 workers in an Indian IT company in different scenarios: working from the office, working from home, and with a hybrid model
Wow that’s a lot of people!
Precisely and this is why this could be very useful data.
They measured the improvement ideas that were handed in. Innovation was not a core part of their job but employees could and were encouraged to contribute ideas for changing processes, cost saving measures, or new product ideas, and these are then subsequently filtered, reviewed and potentially implemented.
So did these ideas drop when working from home?
Actually no, what they found was that when comparing the different scenarios the amount of ideas remained similar. So far so good. However, the difference was in the quality of ideas. Those in work from home scenarios or hybrid produced lower quality ideas.
But importantly this was moderated by how well teams coordinated their collective office time.
So collective office time seems to help with innovation?
Yes. This data shows that even in hybrid working coordinating collective office time boosts innovative ideas - or simply that working from home stifles innovative ideas.
Hybrid working seems to be here to stay but get in the office together, then?
Yes, make sure you are in the office with other team members for more innovative ideas.
Reference
Michael Gibbs, Friederike Mengel, Christoph Siemroth.
Employee innovation during office work, work from home and hybrid work. Scientific Reports, 2024; 14 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-67122-6