A study from Texas A&M University School of Public Health shows that in a sudden shift to remote work in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, employees continued to be productive, and they were also healthier doing it. In this Motley Fool Live segment from "The Virtual Opportunities Show," recorded on May 10, Fool.com contributors Rachel Warren and Travis Hoium discuss how the remote workforce is continuing to evolve and adapt.
Rachel Warren: Yeah. I found this study that was recently released, there was a research team from Texas A&M University School of public health. They conducted a study of 264 employees from an unnamed but very large oil and gas company based out of Texas. They essentially did this study of these employees in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, where this oil and gas company had to close its offices because of the flooding from the hurricane. Because of that, very unexpectedly, those employees had to work remotely for an extended period of time. The researchers, they looked at data from these employees before the Hurricane happened, during and after, and one of the things that was very interesting was they found that although total computer use declined during the hurricane, employees work behaviors during the seven-month period of working remotely, returned to pre-hurricane levels. The end results being that the finding suggests remote work does not negatively impact workplace productivity.
I think that's one of the things that has been cited a lot by some of these very large companies we've talked about over recent months that seem to be very reluctant for workers to go back to the office for a host of reasons, and I think many of those can be very valid, especially depending on the industry the company operates in. But there has often been this idea brought up. Well, if you go back to the office, you're going to be more productive, and there's been sometimes a perception of, if you're working from home, maybe you're not as ambitious, maybe you're actually not going to be getting as much work done. Yes, this was a study of fairly small cohort, less than 300 people, but the results found that all of the study's employees, they were right back up to the same level of output that they were doing before Hurricane Harvey once they got up and running with that remote work setting. Another interesting aspect as well of the study did not just look at employee productivity, it also was looking a little bit into workplace injuries. One of the things they found was that it was very important for employees to take regular breaks to avoid being hurt on the job. That's obviously not a surprise to anyone. But one of the things that was interesting and obviously something that's a little bit easier to do if you're working remotely, the study was finding that if you work a little less or break up some of the time you're working, you are less likely to develop issues from doing your office work.
I can even speak anecdotally and I'm sure we all have examples of this, I used to work in an office for many years, I now work remotely. I was far more prone to sitting for very long periods and ending my workday with a very sore back. Then now whereas I do work for extended periods, but I get up, I walk around, and there's also just that flexibility of knowing you're getting your tasks done, but you feel like you have the freedom to get up and also do what you need to do. A couple of really interesting takeaways here, again, small group of people they studied, but the findings very much showed that even in a very sudden shift to remote work, during a natural disaster, you could argue some of those challenging sudden environment, that sudden change could've been compared to that sudden shift a lot of workplaces had to make in the earlier days of the pandemic. Even so, employees continued to be productive, and then they also were healthier doing it. I thought that was very fascinating and I would be very curious to see if there are more studies like this to come out in the coming months.
Travis Hoium: It's going to be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out long term. I think one of the things that, as I went from the corporate world to writing for The Motley Fool over a decade ago, when you have, this is what I need to get done, you can do it whenever you want. I actually think I'm a lot more productive now given that flexibility. Maybe it takes time to figure out like, what is your process when it's not. You have to be at your desk at this time and you can leave at this time. But most people are more productive working really productively for three hours a day than they are just like being in the office for eight hours a day, probably [laughs]. That I think could really work in business benefits we've talked about before. You have to be structured as a business to be able to do that, maybe you can't make an iPhone in that environment, but you can make a piece of software or something like that.
The other piece is, we're only two years into this pandemic, and in this whole working remote phenomenon. It'll be interesting to see businesses that there is a benefit to being in-person. I just think as you bring on new people, you have to onboard them, they have to get to know people. Are we just going to do that on Zoom? That seems a little bit less personable in building relationships and creating innovative ideas than it does in person. But there may be a big lag between seeing that cost, if you will. I think that one thing that I'm watching is, if you're a big company, let's say General Mills is the example I used before, well, those people have been working there for 20-30 years. I know Joe down the street like I met him 50 times and realize I can do a Zoom call, that's just fine. If you've never met them in your starting a new job and you don't know who these people are, that's a little bit harder to onboard. But there may be a big lag between that being the case and seeing that in lost productivity. It'll be interesting to watch for sure, but companies are going to have to adapt and evolve.
