Remote work isn’t the problem—poor management is, new study finds

 Managers need better training to supervise remote teams.

Remote work sounds like a great idea for our hyper-connected world, and countless studies support the value of this workplace model, which has become more common since Covid. For instance, data from KPMG shows companies that allow remote work grow 1.7 times faster.  But the topic of remote work and hybrid work somehow remains contentious, with many company leaders insisting on banging the “return to the office” drum, insistent that they can’t properly control their company’s performance without having their staff working within direct view. 

Now, new data from a U.K. study adds yet more support for the value of remote work, and points out that it’s actually weak management capabilities, coming from poor training, that are blocking successful remote/hybrid models.

The new research, from economics researchers at the London School of Economics and Birmingham University, points to the reason this problem is important. Despite this hybridization trend, there is a “growing tension between employees, who value the flexibility it offers, and some employers, who are pushing for a return to in-person arrangements.”

The research found from the 800 companies they surveyed that if you want to properly benefit from remote work, the key factor is the simplest one: training. The data showed companies that invested in systematic training were more than twice as likely to report productivity gains: 42 percent versus 20 percent, Phys.org reported. Adopting and embracing hybrid work earlier rather than later also delivered an advantage, the data showed. The workplaces that were well-placed to adopt remote work in 2020 said they had the highest positive productivity impacts and lowest negative productivity impacts from the shift to remote work, compared with firms that moved more slowly or more reluctantly.

All of that is interesting from a business operations perspective, but the statistic that should have managers’ eyes popping open the most is that 32 percent of companies reporting well-established management habits said they saw productivity gains from remote work compared with just 20 percent without them. 

In other words, having well-trained, well-motivated managers leads to massive boosts in productivity from hybrid and remote working models.

The data supported this argument from the flip side, too. Where companies reported struggles with remote work, this issue was concentrated in firms in which leaders fumbled the management and coordination of their remote teams. Fifty-seven percent felt this way about team cohesion and collaboration, Phys.org noted. 

Why should you care about this?

The paper notes that from official U.K. data, the share of people “working from home,” which essentially covers both remote and hybrid (part-time) working models, has essentially doubled since 2019, and these levels are higher than those in other European countries. But other recent research from polling outfit Gallup about the U.S., for comparison, says the share of employees reporting as fully remote has stabilized around 26 percent, with 52 percent in some sort of hybrid arrangement, and only 21 percent in fully “onsite” work. In other words, hybrid and remote work is now the dominant working model, so working to maximize the productivity it offers is a great business policy. 

Furthermore, the data showed that the best results come when management is trained and supported too, alongside remote workers struggling to understand when and how to tackle tasks. Targeted, tailored support and technical training for managers and staff, versus more generic training, also worked best for smaller enterprises, Phys.org argued. 

The takeaways from this research for your company are easy to see:

Hybrid and remote work aren’t going away, no matter how some CEOs like Amazon’s Andy Jassy try to argue against the model. It’s possible to trust remote workers to deliver productivity similar to onsite workers’.

Training on best remote-work practices should include managers as well as frontline staff, possibly right up to executive level. The data shows that if you embrace it instead of insisting on pushing back, you’ll get better productivity results.