The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Report for November 2021 used Understanding Society data to examine the question of productivity when people work from home, suggesting that it could increase by up to 0.7%. This formed part of their quarterly report setting out the economic analysis and inflation projections the Bank uses to make decisions on interest rates.
In the report, the committee considers the increase in working from home caused by the Covid pandemic, saying that “Although the scale of working from home going forward is likely to be lower than when restrictions were in place … firms expect the proportion of employees working from home to be almost three times larger from 2022 onwards than in 2019.”
The report points out that some surveys of people working from home reported lower productivity, but that this might be accounted for by caring responsibilities and people adapting to the new circumstances.
It then refers to our data, saying: “According to the Understanding Society Survey, workers that wish to work more from home after Covid had experienced greater productivity gains when working from home during the pandemic than those workers not planning to work more from home.”
The Bank’s analysis of our data, and data from the Decision Maker Panel (DMP, a survey of Chief Financial Officers from small, medium and large UK businesses), found that working from home could boost potential productivity by around 0.5% to 0.7% – although these figures were “likely to represent an upper bound impact”.
They committee says that, while “more complex or urgent tasks, that may require more collaboration, can be harder from home”, “a quieter and more convenient working environment may boost the productivity of some workers”.
Read the Monetary Policy Committee report
EmploymentMoney and finances
