Paper Example: The Productivity of Telecommuters vs. Working On-Site

Employee productivity is the assessment of the output of the employees over a period of time. There are different factors that are considered in determining the productivity of the employees. The factors include the working environment (Bloom 21). Working from home is different from working in the office. The paper reflects on the differences in employee productivity between employees working from home and employees working in the office or workstation. The paper seeks to find the differences in productivity between the employees working from home and the ones working in the office. It important for employers to understand the most suitable working environment for employees in ensuring that the organization achieves its objective.

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Conflict management entails identifying the factors that cause conflicts and identifying fairways to solve the conflict between parties. Conflicts usually emerge between employees and between employees and the employer. Conflict management I important because it allows different stakeholders to manage their conflicts and work as a team towards achieving the organizational goal (Bloom 25). Employees that work in the office experience more conflicts than the employees that work from their homes. Employees that work from home have minimal interactions with their colleagues hence the chances of having conflicts are minimal as opposed to employees that work in the same office. Where employees have more conflicts, they can be encouraged to work from home to reduce the conflicts.

Working in the office increase the morale of the employees through the interactions where the employee have an opportunity to interact and share ideas. The morale of the employees is key in increasing productivity and making the employees remain focused on achieving the goal of the organization (Bloom 28). Employees working remotely do not have a strong bond between the employees because they do not have the opportunity to interact and share experiences and ideas. Companies need to ensure that employee productivity is not affected regardless of where the employees are working from. Morale and bond between employees influence the productivity of employees; hence companies need to consider whether the employees will be productive working from home or at the office.

Reducing Noise

The working environment is a factor that influences employee productivity. The better the working environment, the more the employees will be productive. A proper environment gives the employees the confidence to work because they feel comfortable working in the environment (Bloom 25). Noise makes the environment unconducive for the employees because of noise pollution. Employers have to ensure that the noise in a given area is reduced. Employees that work from home have a better environment without noise pollution when compared to employees that work in an office. The noise might become from colleagues where the organization has many employees.

Noise affects employees psychologically, where they are unable to concentrate on their work when they work in an environment with noise pollution (Nakrošiene, Ilona, and Bernadeta 56). Both working from home and in the office, the environment needs to be free from noise pollution. The noise will reduce the productivity of the employees because they will be unable to concentrate on working in a noisy environment.

Noise influences the physiological functioning of the body of the employees, where employee productivity is affected by noise pollution (Nakrošiene, Ilona, and Bernadeta 47). Noise pollution affects the cognitive functioning of the body of the employee; hence employers need to reduce noise pollution in their organizations to give the employees the opportunity to concentrate on their work without disruptions.

Future Improvements

There is room for improvement with the changing environments that support employees working from home and the ones working in their offices. The improvement has improved employee productivity by improving the environment where employees work. Among the areas that need to be improved include internet infrastructure to facilitate the connection between the employees and their offices (Bloom 29). An Internet connection allows employees to access information from the organization they work for and enhance communication. Improving the infrastructure will give more people the opportunity to work remotely. There is a challenge of low internet connectivity where organizations are forced to be located in cities where there is an internet connection.

Company policy is also another challenge that affects employee productivity by limiting how the employees work. The majority of companies have a policy where they require employees to work in company offices only (Nakrošiene, Ilona, and Bernadeta 81). The improvement of the policies will allow employees to work in a different environment and thus improving employee productivity. Company policies need to ensure that they allow employees to be productive.

Social acceptance of alternative working areas needs to be improved to allow people to work from home and in the offices. People feel weird working from home because they are used to working from company offices (Nakrošiene, Ilona and Bernadeta 77). The future of the working environment is increasingly changing with people preferring to work from home as opposed to working in offices that belong to the companies they work for. The companies need to adjust their operations to allow employees to work from home without interrupting the operations of the company.

Works Cited

Bloom, Nicholas. "To raise productivity, let more employees work from home." Harvard Business Review 92.1/2 (2014): 20-29.

Nakrošiene, Audrone, Ilona Buciuniene, and Bernadeta Goštautaite. "Working from home: characteristics and outcomes of telework." International Journal of Manpower (2019).