Is working from home driving you nuts, or are you someone who is thriving taking morning meetings on the couch? For one Fortune 100 company, working from home is going so well that they plan to keep doing it, even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Nationwide, the privately-held insurance company sent their 27,000 employees home in early March and will keep most of their employees working from home permanently from now on.
Nationwide previously had 20 physical offices, but now will keep just four in active operation. According to all productivity indicators, performance has remained as high as it was when employees were working in physical proximity to one another.
Part of the successful transition was thanks to a company manual that detailed work from home protocols for the 5,200 associates who were already working remotely before the pandemic. This includes putting on your photo badge as you start the day and taking it off when you step away from the computer to let your family know when you’re at work and to create a physical distinction for yourself to separate your workday from your personal time.
Nationwide CEO Kirt Walker said the company had also already been working on “The Future of Work,” a project to explore potential work from home options for millennials who were eager to work free from the physical constraints of an office.
Working from home saves employees valuable commute time and is economically beneficial for the company which doesn’t have to pay to operate an office. The environmental benefits of reduced energy usage and GHG emissions are added perks as well.
The transition was not without some roadblocks. Issues with security, internet bandwidth, and other tech difficulties popped up throughout the process.
Overall, Nationwide is demonstrating that working from home can be as productive as clocking into the office. We at the Optimist Daily have been covering how work is changing in the 21st century. Changing how we measure productivity and tracking where we can be most productive are two big factors. As COVID-19 pushes us to explore working from home, many companies may decide its more efficient to never return to the office.
