Majority of German Companies See Same Productivity from Working in the Office or from Home

Most German companies expect productivity to remain the same should their employees return from hybrid working to working solely in the office: 60.1% believe that employee productivity will remain the same in this case; 31.6% think it will increase with full office use; only 8.3% predict that employees would then work less productively. “The majority’s positive experience with productivity is an important reason why working from home has become established in many German companies”, says ifo researcher Mathias Dolls.

The results are similar across many industries. Exceptions include the textile industry, where 54.3% of respondents expect higher productivity in the office; the printing industry, at 48.4%; and automotive manufacturers, at 43.2%.

Just under half of the companies that anticipate a drop in productivity if workers return fully to the office put the potential productivity losses at 5 to 10%, while almost one-third expect losses of 10 to 20%. The main reasons given for this are more flexible scheduling of working hours when working from home (68.9%), fewer distractions (64.5%), increased job satisfaction (64%), and a better work-life balance (59.5%).

More than one-third (39%) of those companies that believe a full return to the office will result in a productivity gain expect that gain to be between 10 and 20%, with slightly fewer expecting around a 5 to 10% productivity gain. They attribute this to more efficient coordination and communication (87%), more knowledge sharing (77%), and fewer distractions (53.1%), with 51.8% saying they think teams are easier to manage in the office.

The ifo Institute surveyed 9,000 companies in Germany in August 2023.