father wearing headphones at computer dealing with his two distracting children

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting "stay at home" orders has forced many workers to work remotely — or at least try to. A new survey from the ADP Research Institute (ADPRI) reveals that workers have struggled with working remotely and productivity has suffered. (ADPRI conducted a weekly survey over the eight-week period beginning March 16 of a random sample of persons over 18 years old who were employed as of March 1.)

The fall in productivity was caused by several factors, the survey found.

"Fifty percent of workers currently employed cited technology as a significant obstacle to productivity," comments Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of ADPRI. "Twenty percent of those workers attribute[ed] issues with internet connectivity," she adds.

Other reasons for the fall in productivity included printing and mailing/shipping. Yildirmaz says it's clear from the survey results that "workers were not prepared to do every piece of their job remotely and had limited resources at home."

Issues such as child care, work space, and stress over the COVID-19 virus stabilized after the first four weeks, but technical issues have not been resolved, the survey found. In Weeks 2 and 3, more than 40 %of workers reported their stress level to be higher than the week before. However, once we reached Week 4, workers seem to have adapted to the "new normal" and the stress level stopped getting worse week-to-week.

For some, the technology that allows people to work from home actually contributed to lower productivity, with 10% citing online meetings as a barrier. The number of survey respondents who gave the number of hours worked (29%) and the frequency with which workers communicate to co-workers and customers (37%) as reasons remained relatively unchanged from Weeks 2-8.

"While it is difficult to quantify the importance of connecting with others, there certainly is an impact on productivity," Yildirmaz notes.

By the end of the survey period, only 50% of respondents said that their ability to complete tasks was unchanged from before the pandemic.

The overall number of workers working remotely also leveled out after an initial surge. Remote workers rose from 28% to 44% from Week 1 to Week 2, and that number stayed steady through Week 8. The survey found that prior to the pandemic, only 15% of workers said their company even had a work-from-home policy, and by Week 2, more than 25% were required to work from home and two-thirds were working remotely at least one day a week.

Working from home won't end anytime soon, according to Yildirmaz. "It is likely that workers may continue to work remotely provided their comfort level with the pandemic and if their employer permits them to do so.," she says.

Steve Salkin is a managing editor for BenefitsPRO parent company ALM. He can be reached at ssalkin@alm.com.

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