Fleeing the office

Research shows that employees who are allowed to work from home are more efficient than those who are required to go to an office each day. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Chinese companies are catching on to the trend of letting employees work from home

It is 2 am, but Zhou Yi, a 26-year-old interior designer based in Shanghai, is just beginning his workday. From the comfort of his bedroom, with a cup of coffee and a handful of home-baked biscuits by his side, he starts tapping away on his computer.

Zhou said that for him, working from home was an ideal arrangement.

"Firstly, I'm more energetic and creative at night," he said. "Secondly, I get to spend more time with my cat, who was quite lonely and depressed when I was stuck in an office all day."

Zhou said that he quit his former company around two years ago, sick of the crowded commutes and cramped office cubicles, where he would be subjected to his co-workers' second-hand smoke.

His present company, which focuses on interior design for residential and commercial spaces, allows its staff to work when and where they want. As Zhou needs little else besides a computer to do his job, he most often works from home.

Zhou said on transport alone, he saved around 2,000 yuan a month ($320.6), based on how much it would cost if he had to drive to his office.

Flexible working arrangements such as Zhou's have been commonplace in the US for a number of years now, especially in the tech industry, where there is little need for employees to be in an office to do their work.

In China however, it remains a novel idea that has only recently begun to gain traction.

Higher productivity

Besides soliciting the goodwill and gratitude of employees, the argument for companies to allow staff to work from home is that it can reduce operating costs and increase productivity.

Last year, a joint study between researchers at Peking University and Stanford University looking at the productivity of workers in call centers in China found those permitted to work from home were 13 percent more efficient than those who were required to clock in at an office.

Conducted over the course of 10 months, the study monitored a pool of 13,000 workers at ctrip.com, one of China's largest online travel companies, with some workers randomly assigned to work from home. The findings, which were published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, also showed that in addition to increased productivity, those allowed to work from home were 50 percent less likely to quit, and took fewer sick days or days off for personal leave.

Zhou said that he wasn't surprised by the findings, based on his own experiences of being able to work from home versus having to go into an office.

"[When I had to go into an office every day], I would sometimes call in sick just because I had gone to sleep late the night before and felt too tired," said Zhou. By taking a whole day off work, even though he wasn't sick, Zhou unnecessarily affected the overall productivity of the company.

He said now he was free to organize his time as he liked, he was more productive, rather than less. "It seems weird, but it means that I'm more enthusiastic and devote more time to work," said Zhou. "I haven't wasted a single day since I started working from home."

Cutting operating costs

Tang Mengjuan, a career counselor and columnist at the Economic Observer, said that letting staff work from home also had the advantage of allowing companies to cut operating costs.

She said that if not all staff were required to be at an office at all times, a company could reduce the size of their operating premises as well as to move it out of the city center, both of which can reduce rent. Not having to run a full-time office was also more cost-effective in terms of day to day costs like electricity and air conditioning, said Tang.

Andrew Li, the general manager of the company where Zhou works, said that before they implemented the work-from-home policy they had their offices in Shanghai's central area Wujiaochang, which cost around 60,000 yuan per month in rent. They have since moved their offices to Zhoupu in the city's southern Nanhui district, where the rent is just 18,000 yuan per month.