Working from home – boosting efficiency and slowing innovation
We’ve all learned that working from home does not hurt and has many advantages. Companies are therefore gearing up to continue this way of working after the pandemic, because the efficiency gains are tangible, and the cost savings are undeniable. However, the impact on companies’ ability to innovate should not be underestimated.
A few weeks ago, I published a blog post on my LinkedIn profile entitled “Longing for the wide, open office”. This declaration of love for the office generated more interest than any other article in recent years. Reason enough for Perikom, the professional association for human resource management and internal communication, to take a closer look at the topic, which is published today in the print edition of “Persönlich”.
Working from home is being celebrated – and with good reason. Last August, CISCO’s “Workforce of the Future” study surveyed 10,095 employees in twelve countries, including 1004 people in Switzerland: 58% rated their time working from home more positively than expected. 72% simply want the same technology at home as in the office, and 87% would like to be able to choose where they work in the future. 65% believe that people don’t need to be in the same room to collaborate effectively. A study of applied psychology in the midst of the covid19 crisis by the ZHAW came to a similar conclusion: more than 70% of those surveyed felt comfortable or very comfortable working from home and would like to continue this type of work organisation after the Corona crisis.
As the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote last June, large companies also saw the benefits: Credit Suisse, for example, emphasised that there were hardly any problems with IT or day-to-day business. Around 90% of Credit Suisse employees worked from home during the closure. UBS also noted that, despite increased trading volumes and market volatility, client services and operations were maintained at the usual level of quality and without incident. Swiss Life also reported that it continued to operate as normal. At Adecco Switzerland, feedback from employees even suggested that productivity had increased while working from home.
Gossip and lurking
However, all of the interviewed companies immediately added that the direct exchange with work colleagues and customers cannot be completely replaced, even with sophisticated virtual concepts. In a survey conducted by GFS Bern in April/May 2020, 64% agreed with the statement that working from home promotes the feeling of being alone. And even the daily gossip stays on the track. Journalist Jenny Niederstadt described in “Bilanz” in February this year what it means when the office whispering stops, what happens when communication is no longer possible, for example when going to the toilet. Niederstadt cited a study from the University of California Riverside showing that we spend about 52 minutes a day gossiping. Psychologists assign an important role to this gossiping; that of lightning rod, warning signal and friendship service. The Bilanz article also quotes the British evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar. He compares gossiping to mutual lousing, as practised by the great apes: Grooming is hygienically unnecessary, but socially very important. Herd members use it to forge alliances, placate rivals or settle feuds. Gossip works in a similar way. If it’s no longer possible to gossip, it’s not only the notorious gossiper who suffers, but also the company. A few years ago, researchers at City University in London studied the performance of 100 nurses. They found that people were more productive if they found time in their work to talk to colleagues about their stress and negative feelings.
It could be argued that loneliness and a lack of gossip should be accepted to a certain extent, given the productivity gains that can be achieved. Much more important, however, is the possible negative impact on companies’ ability to innovate. Little research and writing have been done on this.
Lonely Ideas
Of course, we all know the dubious benefits of group brainstorming. But the big ideas don’t happen in isolation. Real innovation often “happens” in the middle of the company. Because engaged people are not satisfied with one solution. Because they consider alternatives in a continuous exchange with colleagues. Because people with similar tasks but completely different perspectives meet. Lars Vollmer, entrepreneur and author of bestselling books on society and business, even believes that working from home destroys innovation. According to Vollmer, innovation always requires a break from the norm, otherwise it’s not innovation. Innovation, he says, occurs primarily at the informal level.
The effect of a certain amount of background noise in a busy office should also not be underestimated. Marco Simonetti, design director at Heads, recently said: “I don’t need constant interaction to work, but a certain level of noise in the agency and the occasional person passing by my office door inspires my creativity. What sounds strange has been scientifically confirmed by the University of Oxford. The study is called “Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition” and was published in the Journal of Consumer Research in 2012. The result: moderate noise levels are ideal for creativity. Even more than a low noise level, ambient noise enhances creativity. A moderate level of noise increases processing difficulties, which in turn promotes abstract processing, which in turn leads to more creativity. Either way, working alone is only fun to a certain extent, and as Albert Einstein rightly said: “Creativity is intelligence having fun”.
Working from home may be good for a few days a week – but only in a mix with presence at the office workplace. Fun fact: Christa Dürscheid, professor of German at the University of Zurich, pointed out in “Persönlich” this February that even the in German used name “home office” is not beyond reproach: In English, you would say: “I work from home”. In British English, “home office” means “ministry of the interior”. Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford, opined back in 2014 that telecommuting, so it was said at that time, significantly increased productivity, but also put it into perspective: “The more robotic the work, the greater the benefits, we think.” Let’s look forward, with good reason, to post-pandemic work, gossip and innovation.