In 2013, researchers from Stanford studied the effects of telecommuting at Ctrip, a travel website in China. The company allowed some employees at Ctrip’s call centre to work from home for nine months, expecting that it could save the firm some money and office space, which would make up for a predicted decline in worker productivity. However, it turned out that people working from home were more productive, completing 13.5% more calls than workers in the office, almost an extra full day of work. The employees working from home were also less likely to quit and reported being happier.

(Source: Harvard Business Review)

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, April 25th, 2016