At first glance, without understanding the realm of remote work or telecommuting, it’s natural to question whether the productivity of remote workers matches that of in-office employees. Reflecting on this, I recall a conversation with a well-known entrepreneur who said, «This telecommuting thing hasn’t worked for us; as the term suggests, it’s ‘Tele’ first and ‘Work’ second.» I still smile at those words…

Fortunately, the pandemic gave the world a shake-up, and those of us who had been working remotely for over 15 years stopped being the internet geeks and became known as digital nomads. Companies like Shopify, Facebook, and Apple reconfigured their teams to work remotely, with thousands of employees suddenly working from home, leading to a surge in Zoom’s stock value.

Remote work is here to stay, but managers and decision-makers still have the same concern they did on day one: How does remote work affect productivity?

Spoiler alert: The key to this post isn’t the conclusion but understanding why remote work can indeed be more productive than in-office work. Of course, it can.

Not to be a wet blanket, but there are two conditions that can ruin your plan to switch your team from in-office to remote. First, not all jobs can be done remotely. Second, remote work culture requires resources and a methodology dependent on the same people questioning if remote teams can be as productive as in-office teams.

To address these concerns, we analyzed some companies and leaders who have thrived in the remote environment, deconstructing productivity to understand the levers that drive team and organizational productivity. Let’s dive in.

What is Productivity?


According to Wikipedia, productivity is the ratio between the amount of output produced by a productive system and the resources used to obtain that output. It can also be defined as the relationship between results and the time taken to achieve them: the less time it takes to achieve the desired result, the more productive the system is. In essence, productivity is an efficiency indicator that relates the amount of resources used to the amount of output produced.

To simplify it into a formula: Productivity = Output / Work Hours, Output is often represented as money, indicating the value added by the work hours.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the factors of production have been: Land, Labor, Capital, Technology, and Enterprise.

While much has changed since then, in sectors that can apply remote work, the factors remain the same: Labor, Capital, Technology, and Enterprise. These are the main pillars affecting productivity. Let’s detail each one, as the terminology is quite outdated and requires some clarification:

  • Labor: From slavery to talent. Yes, in 2023, some companies still operate as if it’s 5 B.C., while others think ahead to 2050. Labor is about people, as it is people who create value in organizations.
  • Capital: Capital includes economic resources needed by the company to produce. We won’t delve into fixed or working capital here, as that’s a topic for another blog post…
  • Technology: The knowledge and techniques applied by the company to its productive activity to make it efficient (or possible). This concept has evolved and now includes the capacity to generate technology, which is undoubtedly a key factor in productivity today.
  • Enterprise Factor: Refers to business organization, planning, management, and direction of company activities. It’s no longer a unilateral decision by an entrepreneur but a collaboration across various sectors and geographic locations.

Considering the deconstruction of productivity and returning to the decision-maker still wondering if remote work can be more productive than in-office work, it’s time to bring out the whiteboard and reformulate:

Productivity = (People + Capital + Technology + Organization) / Work Hours

And ask: Did you know that only 7% of workers want to work in the office full-time? That 32% yearn to work from home full-time?

Having the right talent is crucial for elevating productivity. Adequate capital is needed to reward employees appropriately. Additionally, an organization must be well-equipped to manage team decentralization effectively. A staggering 47% of people asked have stated that their productivity has improved with remote work.

It seems that if the talent is in the right position, well-compensated, equipped with the necessary technology, and supported by an optimal organization, their proactivity is unquestionable. Statistics suggest that this should be in a remote or at least hybrid organization.

The well-being of people is reflected in productivity. As Darren Murph, Head of Remote at Gitlab, said: «The future of work is actually the future of living.»

Daan Van Rossum, CEO of FlexOS, presents an excellent article featuring 55 remote work leaders. I wanted to share some quotes to inspire you to read his piece.

“Let’s Redefine ‘Productivity’ for the Hybrid Era”

by Jaime Teevan (Microsoft)

In this article, Jaime discusses productivity as more than just a method guided by simple productivity measures, focusing on long-term factors that lead to sustainable innovation. He concludes that managers must expand their thinking about productivity to focus on well-being, social connections, collaboration, and innovation among individuals contributing to the business.

Amina, CEO of Radius, a platform for booking ad-hoc office space «right in your neighborhood,» reminds us that «remote isn’t just working from home.» She recently wrote an interesting post on how isolating remote work can be and how to adapt your workspace for well-being: a café, a park, or a colleague’s home.

Another leader to consider, not always from the IT world, is Ryan Anderson, Vice-President of Global Research and Insights at the reputable furniture company MillerKnoll. He and his team lead research on «how the places we inhabit can be better designed to support healthy, inclusive, and productive communities.» For more insights, listen to the MillerKnoll podcast «Looking Forward: Conversations about the future of work.»

I wouldn’t want to finish without mentioning the genius work of Adam Nathan, CEO of Almanac: Modern Work Method.

“Work has an unsolved problem: Where we work has changed, but how we work has not.”

The Modern Work Method, derived from over 5,000 interviews with top business professionals, is a new philosophy on delivering business value quickly, designed for remote and distributed teams. It advocates for structured, transparent, and async-first collaboration over informal, real-time, office-first approaches transplanted to remote contexts.

  • Definitions over deadlines
  • Structure over improvisation
  • Transparency over need-to-know
  • Documents over meetings
  • Short feedback cycles over extended deliberation
  • Insights over outcomes

We could write 100 more pages on this topic, but at this point, if you’re interested, you’ll be eager to explore further. Here’s the link to the report: Top 55 Remote Work Thought Leaders. As a bonus, check out this similar article from LinkedIn: Top Voices in Remote Work: The 10 Creators to Follow.

Lastly, I leave you with a fascinating interview with the founders of Deel, a SaaS revolutionizing global hiring. Don’t miss Alex’s pitch at minute 11: The Fastest Growing SaaS Startup in History | Deel.

In this second part of the post, we shed our scientist hats and put on our internet surfer hats. Without further conclusions, statistics, or charts, we open the door to remote work, the future of work. We hope to meet you along the way.