The opposition wants to call time on letting public servants work from home. In a speech^[1] to the Menzies Research Institute this week, shadow public service minister Jane Hume said, if elected, a Coalition government would require public servants in the office five days a week:

While work from home arrangements can work, in the case of the [Australian Public Service], it has become a right that is creating inefficiency.

Hume said Labor had given public servants a “blank cheque” to work from home, creating an “unsustainable” system that was no longer working.

She stressed that exceptions “can and will be made”, but only “where they work for everyone rather than be enforced on teams by an individual”.

Few workplace issues have drawn such heated debate as whether people should be allowed to work from home. The Coalition’s latest election promise, with parallels^[2] to a similar move by Donald Trump in the United States, has brought these questions back into the spotlight.

What impact do work from home arrangements have, not only on performance and productivity but also employee wellbeing? Is it really wise to reverse course?

Our research has examined these questions in detail – and we’ve found a changing picture.

Read more: Dutton hints he'll sack 36,000 public servants. Voters deserve to know what services will be affected^[3]

Our research

We have examined the impacts of working from home on staff performance and productivity in Australian workplaces as part of the Australian Workplace Index^[4], surveying 2,932 Australian employees across 2022 and 2024.

This is a research collaboration project between Australian National University and University of Newcastle.

The Coalition argues public servants should return to the office. Ground Picture/Shutterstock^[5]

An Australian Workplace Index 2022 working paper^[6] (which has not been peer-reviewed) actually suggested working from home was linked with a number of negative impacts.

In 2022, we saw that compared to those who didn’t, employees who worked from home three to four days a week experienced lower wellbeing, higher depression and anxiety, and higher loneliness.

They also experienced more administrative hassles, higher pressure to meet targets and increased levels of conflict with supervisors and colleagues.

We found working from home was also associated with a reduction in staff productivity, job-target performance and an increase in staff turnover intentions.

A changing picture

We have recently completed analysis for a similar study based on data from 2024, to be published in an upcoming working paper. And it paints a very different picture.

We found the negative impacts of working from home, originally found in 2022, had reversed in 2024.

In the most recent 2024 Australian Workplace Index employment data, we see no significant difference in productivity between employees who work from home and those in the office.

In fact, the latest data suggest numerous benefits.

For example, staff who worked from home one or more days a week had 9.9% more autonomy in how they carried out their work. Those with higher job autonomy were up to 16.8% more productive in their work when compared to those with low job autonomy.

We found staff who work from home also save on average 100 minutes in commuting time each day.

But on top of this, staff who worked from home one or more days a week were 10.6% less burnt out from work compared to those who never did, and had reported lower intention to quit their jobs.

A reduced need to commute is a major benefit of work-from-home arrangements. Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock^[7]

Better support for employees

This positive trend likely reflects investment by employers in improving support for staff who work from home.

In 2024, we found a majority of organisations (69%) now had a work-from-home policy in place.

There was also an increase in the physical, technological and psychological infrastructure support available to staff who work from home. For example:

• Physical: 82% of staff have a dedicated workspace, 93% have their own desk, and 93% have air conditioning.
• Technological: 85% of staff have access to IT support, 94% have access to collaborative technology and 95% have internet access.
• Psychological: 80% of staff have access to psychological support from their supervisor and 72% have access to counselling services.

Importantly, employees still value the opportunity highly. Our 2024 data show 38% of Australian employees chose to work from home for 50% or more of their work hours.

32% of Australian employees would prefer to exclusively work from home, 41% prefer a hybrid option, while 27% prefer to work exclusively from the office.

References

1. ^{^} speech (www.themandarin.com.au)
2. ^{^} parallels (www.theguardian.com)
3. ^{^} Dutton hints he'll sack 36,000 public servants. Voters deserve to know what services will be affected (theconversation.com)
4. ^{^} Australian Workplace Index (www.australianworkplaceindex.com.au)
5. ^{^} Ground Picture/Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
6. ^{^} working paper (papers.ssrn.com)
7. ^{^} Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)