Both home- and office-based employees worked the same shift period, in their same work groups, under the same managers as before, and logged on to the same computer system, with the same equipment, and the same work-order flow. The only difference between the two groups was the location where they worked. Ctrip keeps extensive, computerized records of the times employees are actually working, the sales they make and the quality of their interactions with customers, and this data allowed us to compare the performance of those at home and those in the office.
So what were the results of the experiment? First, the performance of the home-workers went up dramatically, increasing by 13% over the course of the nine months. This increase in output came mainly from a rise in the number of minutes they worked during each shift, which was due to a reduction in the number of breaks and sick days that they took. The home-workers were also more productive per minute, which employees told us (in detailed surveys) was due to the quieter working conditions at home.
Second, there was no change in the performance of the control group (and there were no negative effects seen from staying in the office). Third, the rate of staff turnover fell sharply for the home-workers, dropping by almost 50% compared to the control group. The home-workers also reported substantially higher work satisfaction and less “work exhaustion” in a psychological attitudes survey.
At the end of the experiment, Ctrip’s management team was so impressed by the success of the WFH policy that they decided to roll it out to the entire firm. They also offered both the original home-workers and the control group a fresh choice of work arrangements.
To their surprise, half of the home-workers changed their minds and returned to the office and three quarters of the control group — who had initially all requested to work from home — decided to stay in the office, as well. The main reason seems to be that people who worked from home were lonely. This unexpected outcome highlights the fact that before these types of management policies are implemented, their likely effects are as unclear to employees as they are to managers. It also helps to explain the typically slow adoption of such practices.