HR can often find itself struggling to make arguments for an office return, despite associated benefits with remote or hybrid work.

Many bosses – Alan Sugar, Pimlico Plumber’s Charlie Mullins and Morgan Stanley’s CEO amongst them – have been outspoken against remote working and are pushing for an office return.

Yet, most in HR know that remote working can boost productivity, performance, engagement, retention and profitability.

And, it’s what most employees are now calling for.

Recent Leadership IQ stats found that a whopping 91% would like at least some time working from home, with 39% saying that they’d like to work from home three to four days a week going forward.

It’s seemingly clear: if employers want to engage, retain and attract talent in the future they must offer remote work

Goldman Sachs data

So, the newest Goldman Sachs data could help your cause if you’re pushing for the executive to allow more flexibility in how work gets done.

In fact, it touches on everything that senior HR leaders and businesses bosses should want – showing that remote work can improve boost productivity in the long term, improves psychological aspects of worker engagement and provides better.

What Goldman Sachs’ latest data shows is that productivity – based on US economy data – has shot up since remote working became enforced for many businesses.

Businesses are now, on average, three per cent more productive per hour since the start of the pandemic – more than double the figure before remote work became more widely spread.

The bank’s stats suggest this will continue to rise – with increased automation and worker efficiency also playing its part – to a huge four per cent by 2022.

Some might say there are other factors at play other than remote work here, and they’re right, but the biggest productivity gains are tacked to industries which can accommodate remote work more easily.

These include professional services, product development and IT.

Everything HR owns

But it’s not just the bottom line that remote work is boosting.

Many remote workers are happier than in-office workers, with marginalised groups – women and people of colour – reporting feeling like they have more autonomy and greater security when working remotely.

Who’s going full steam ahead with remote work?

Many big firms seemingly understand the benefits of this move to remote.

Deloitte made waves in the end of June by stating that  it will allow its 20,000 staff members in the UK to choose to work from home forever if they wish.

They followed Twitter who told staff that they could work from home forever if they wanted to last year.

The BBC previously reported that the decision came as Twitter revealed that its working-from-home measures had been a success.

In a statement at the time, Twitter said: “The past few months have proven we can make that work. So, if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen.”

More recently, tech giant Facebook announced that a significant portion of its staff would be able to work remotely indefinitely if they choose to.

Facebook previously told the BBC that it believes remote working is ‘the future’.

It could be difficult

However, despite big-name examples taking the lead in remote work, making the argument to bosses could be difficult.

For instance, despite Goldman Sachs’ own data showing that productivity was boosted during the remote work period the CEO of the banking giant is still to be convinced.

David Solomon, CEO at the New York-headquartered global business, previously told the BBC that remote work was  “an aberration that we are going to correct as soon as possible.”

He added more recently that he believes workers are happy to be back in the office – despite data suggesting the opposite – and that clients like it too.

Whilst the office-first approach might be right for some organisations, Solomon’s comments shows the scale of the fight HR has on its hand to convince some bosses that remote work does have benefits.

MyGrapevine, Daniel Cave

July 2021