Evaluating job performance shouldn’t hinge solely on an employee’s physical presence at their workspace. A professional might clock in at 8:45 a.m., remain until 5:30 p.m., yet still leave unanswered questions about their actual contributions or results achieved.
They were there, certainly, but did the work get done? Was it done well? Did the customer get what they needed? These are different questions, and for businesses deciding how remote or hybrid work should fit into their week, they are far more useful than counting days in the office.
What the Research Actually Tells Us
In a 2024 randomized trial published in Nature, 1,612 employees at Trip.com worked from home two days a week. Resignations fell by about a third, while performance reviews, promotions, and engineers’ code output showed no measurable difference.
This is a meaningful retention benefit, not evidence that hybrid work magically makes everyone more productive. There is evidence pointing the other way, too, such as a trial involving newly hired data-entry workers in India, which found lower productivity among those assigned to work from home.
Research at a large IT company found that, during an abrupt shift to home working, employees put in more hours without producing more output. Neither is a direct test of a thoughtfully planned hybrid arrangement, but both are reasons to avoid sweeping claims.
The Commute Has a Cost
Getting to work takes time, and for some people, it also means an early start, crowded transport, traffic, and arriving home with little left in the tank. None of that automatically shows up in a business productivity report, but still shapes a working day.
A multi-country study that included Australia estimated that working from home saved about 72 minutes of commuting per day, with roughly 40% of that time going back to work. That is worth noticing, although extra time at a laptop is not necessarily a better output.
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The wellbeing evidence is mixed, too. Australian panel research suggests that mental health effects of commuting and working from home vary across groups. That doesn’t mean everyone will be happier working from home, but time and energy are still real considerations.
When Does Being Together Make a Difference?
An office can be a particularly useful place of learning, as research on software engineers found that proximity increased feedback and improved code quality. Another study found that initial in-person training helped employees who were later given the chance to work remotely.
There is a social cost to consider as well, as a 2026 Science study associated remote-capable work with greater isolation and poorer mental wellbeing, particularly among people living alone. Other research has found better reported wellbeing among remote workers.
Measure What Matters
Before debating how many days an employee should spend at home, a business should be able to explain what good performance looks like. Not just whether a person was online, but whether the work was accurate, timely, and useful.
The measures should fit the job, not the location, and it also helps to separate three things that often get bundled together: attendance is being present, availability is being reachable when needed, and performance is delivering work to the expected standard.
A better question to ask would be, could you explain how you know someone is doing good work without pointing to their desk? If you can, you have a better starting point for deciding when people need to be together and when flexibility makes sense.
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