Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary An intervention that allowed randomly selected employees in a Chinese travel agency call centre to work from home appeared to have significant positive effects on worker performance. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>A rising share of employees now regularly engage in working from home (WFH), but there are concerns this can lead to “shirking from home.” We report the results of a WFH experiment at Ctrip, a 16,000-employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency. Call center employees who volunteered to WFH were randomly assigned either to work from home or in the office for nine months. Home working led to a 13% performance increase, of which 9% was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick days) and 4% from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter and more convenient working environment). Home workers also reported improved work satisfaction, and their attrition rate halved, but their promotion rate conditional on performance fell. Due to the success of the experiment, Ctrip rolled out the option to WFH to the whole firm and allowed the experimental employees to reselect between the home and office. Interestingly, over half of them switched, which led to the gains from WFH almost doubling to 22%. This highlights the benefits of learning and selection effects when adopting modern management practices like WFH.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/130/1/165.abstract Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question What is the effectiveness of the company policy permitting working from home? Sample Trial population and sample selection In 2010, employees in Ctrip, a large, modern Chinese Firm, were informed of the Work From Home (WFH) programme. All employees took an extensive survey, but were not told the criteria needed to participate in WFH. Of the 994 employees in the surveyed departments, 503 volunteered for WFH. The 49% who did not volunteer mentioned concerns of loneliness and the possible negative impact of WFH on promotion. To qualify, the employee needed to have at least 6 months tenure, broadband internet at home, and an independent workspace. 249 employees met the requirements and were recruited. The treatment and control groups were randomised from the group of 249 through a public lottery. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups 131 workers Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description Work From Home (WFH) allowance for 4 out of 5 of the employee's' weekly workdays. Hourly schedules were held constant as to coincide with supervisor's schedules. The experiment began in December of 2010 and lasted 9 months. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Ctrip's database provided performance measures and histories of employees, and was combined with the initial survey. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Individual Employee Performance: Weekly phone calls answered, phone calls answered per minute on the phone, weekly sum of minutes on the phone, overall performance z-score measure. Individual Employee Labor Supply and Quality: Minutes on the phone per day worked, absenteeism, phone calls answered that resulted in orders. Quality, Spillovers: Conversion rates, recording scores. Employees' self-reported Outcomes and Attrition: Satisfaction and attitude survey, rates of attrition. Promotion and Career Concerns: Promotion data.</p> Results <p>Highly significant 13% increase in employee performance from WFH; 9% was from employees working more minutes of their shift period and about 4% from higher performance per minute. No negative spillovers onto workers who stayed in the office. Home workers reported substantially higher work satisfaction and psychological attitude scores, and their job attrition rates fell by more than 50%. When the experiment ended and workers were allowed to choose whether to work at home, gains in performance almost doubled.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J. & Ying, Z. J., 2015. 'Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment'. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 130, pages 165-218. 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