Findings from Reboot reveals people working from home offices are more productive

UK Search engine optimisation (SEO) agency, Reboot, has come up with new findings on the time people waste during their working hours in the workplace and at home in the case of remote working. Reboot carried out a survey of 5,265 people to find out which career areas are wasting the most time.

Outside of digital PR, content marketing and web design this London-based agency also writes a blog with tips for professionals but also the general public, runs digital experiments on Google features and does research on various subjects.

Research on time wasted during working hours was carried out using a survey where participants aged 18-65 answered a series of questions about their place of residence as well as important information regarding their job. The results have been processed and ranked on the number of hours people from the different job sectors waste during their working hours.

The agency conducted similar research in August 2017 on nearly 1,000 participants. It was found that employees procrastinate for an average of two hours and two minutes. That is ten hours and ten minutes a week.

The September 2022 research looks at the issue in greater detail. Results show that Public Services and Administration employees working in the office waste up to ten hours of working time per week. Whereas their home-office colleagues are three hours more productive and waste only seven hours of their week.

Employees in the Retail, Sales, Advertising and PR, as well as Energy and Utilities industries, are slightly better and procrastinate for nine hours a week when working from the office. Last mentioned Energy and Utilities workers however, in the case of hybrid working where they are both in the office and at home during the week only waste one working hour per week.

People working in Engineering and Manufacturing, Science and Pharmaceuticals ended up with the fewest hours wasted while working from the office. On average one hour per week.

In addition to Property and Construction, Social Care, and Transport and Logistics, Sales also appeared in the number of most procrastinated hours for hybrid workers, admitting to 5 hours per week.

The industries in which workers waste the fewest hours include Sport and Tourism, Healthcare or Teaching and Education miss an average of 3 hours per week. But also Media and Internet, Business, and Marketing which only write one wasted hour.

About 37% of people surveyed mentioned that they thought they were more productive at home. Only 18% of respondents were in favour of the option of working from the Office. According to Reboot's findings, working from the office is causing the firm to lose money as office workers waste an average of £2,000 a year.

It was Reboot that stepped in to counter reduced productivity by introducing a 4-day working from home week. "Overall there is a better work/life balance which means people are more productive at work," says the agency's Managing Director Naomi Aharony.

An increase of remote job opportunities is the answer to greater employee productivity and a cheaper working environment compared to an office setting. And so it is only a matter of time before this way of working becomes more and more common.