{"id":25452,"date":"2025-07-27T07:22:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T07:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/25452\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T07:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T07:22:17","slug":"more-than-two-thirds-of-organisations-have-a-formal-work-from-home-policy-heres-how-the-benefits-stack-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/25452\/","title":{"rendered":"More than two-thirds of organisations have a formal work-from-home policy. Here\u2019s how the benefits stack up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opposition wants to call time on letting public servants work from home. In a speech<\/a> to the Menzies Research Institute this week, shadow public service minister Jane Hume said, if elected, a Coalition government would require public servants in the office five days a week: <\/p>\n

While work from home arrangements can work, in the case of the [Australian Public Service], it has become a right that is creating inefficiency.<\/p>\n

Hume said Labor had given public servants a \u201cblank cheque\u201d to work from home, creating an \u201cunsustainable\u201d system that was no longer working.<\/p>\n

She stressed that exceptions \u201ccan and will be made\u201d, but only \u201cwhere they work for everyone rather than be enforced on teams by an individual\u201d. <\/p>\n

Few workplace issues have drawn such heated debate as whether people should be allowed to work from home. The Coalition\u2019s latest election promise, with parallels<\/a> to a similar move by Donald Trump in the United States, has brought these questions back into the spotlight. <\/p>\n

What impact do work from home arrangements have, not only on performance and productivity but also employee wellbeing? Is it really wise to reverse course? <\/p>\n

Our research has examined these questions in detail \u2013 and we\u2019ve found a changing picture. <\/p>\n

Read more:
\n Dutton hints he’ll sack 36,000 public servants. Voters deserve to know what services will be affected<\/a><\/p>\n

Our research<\/p>\n

We have examined the impacts of working from home on staff performance and productivity in Australian workplaces as part of the Australian Workplace Index<\/a>, surveying 2,932 Australian employees across 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

This is a research collaboration project between Australian National University and University of Newcastle. <\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The Coalition argues public servants should return to the office.
\n Ground Picture\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

An Australian Workplace Index 2022 working paper<\/a> (which has not been peer-reviewed) actually suggested working from home was linked with a number of negative impacts.<\/p>\n

In 2022, we saw that compared to those who didn\u2019t, employees who worked from home three to four days a week experienced lower wellbeing, higher depression and anxiety, and higher loneliness. <\/p>\n

They also experienced more administrative hassles, higher pressure to meet targets and increased levels of conflict with supervisors and colleagues. <\/p>\n

We found working from home was also associated with a reduction in staff productivity, job-target performance and an increase in staff turnover intentions.<\/p>\n

A changing picture<\/p>\n

We have recently completed analysis for a similar study based on data from 2024, to be published in an upcoming working paper. And it paints a very different picture. <\/p>\n

We found the negative impacts of working from home, originally found in 2022, had reversed in 2024. <\/p>\n

In the most recent 2024 Australian Workplace Index employment data, we see no significant difference in productivity between employees who work from home and those in the office.<\/p>\n

In fact, the latest data suggest numerous benefits. <\/p>\n

For example, staff who worked from home one or more days a week had 9.9% more autonomy in how they carried out their work. Those with higher job autonomy were up to 16.8% more productive in their work when compared to those with low job autonomy. <\/p>\n

We found staff who work from home also save on average 100 minutes in commuting time each day.<\/p>\n

But on top of this, staff who worked from home one or more days a week were 10.6% less burnt out from work compared to those who never did, and had reported lower intention to quit their jobs.<\/p>\n

\"commuters<\/p>\n

A reduced need to commute is a major benefit of work-from-home arrangements.
\n Adam Calaitzis\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n

Better support for employees<\/p>\n

This positive trend likely reflects investment by employers in improving support for staff who work from home.<\/p>\n

In 2024, we found a majority of organisations (69%) now had a work-from-home policy in place. <\/p>\n

There was also an increase in the physical, technological and psychological infrastructure support available to staff who work from home. For example: <\/p>\n

Physical: 82% of staff have a dedicated workspace, 93% have their own desk, and 93% have air conditioning.
\nTechnological: 85% of staff have access to IT support, 94% have access to collaborative technology and 95% have internet access.
\nPsychological: 80% of staff have access to psychological support from their supervisor and 72% have access to counselling services.<\/p>\n

Importantly, employees still value the opportunity highly. Our 2024 data show 38% of Australian employees chose to work from home for 50% or more of their work hours. <\/p>\n

32% of Australian employees would prefer to exclusively work from home, 41% prefer a hybrid option, while 27% prefer to work exclusively from the office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The opposition wants to call time on letting public servants work from home. In a speech to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[64,63,99,180],"class_list":{"0":"post-25452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}