Working from home flexibility can improve staff retention without impacting performance, experts say. 

During a recent trial at a Chinese company, 1,612 employees were randomly assigned to work either three or five days in the office per week for six months. 

In follow-up surveys, the hybrid working group had higher job satisfaction and saw quit rates reduce by a third, with women, non-managers and people with long commutes appearing to drive this reduction. 

Monitoring the productivity of the employees over two years, the researchers say there were no differences in performance grades or promotions and managers surveyed were more likely to have positive views about working from home than they were at the beginning of the study.

They found that a flexible working from home scheme can improve job satisfaction rates and employee retention at the Chinese offices of the global travel agent Trip.com.

The authors assessed the effect of hybrid working on employee performance and promotion. 

They examine measures of employee performance, including reviews and promotional outcomes, up to two years after the start of the experiment, and found no differences between the two groups. 

As a result of these findings, the hybrid policy was extended to all employees of Trip.com. 

The company calculated that the potential reduction in employees leaving could save them millions of dollars in recruitment and training costs.

“This new study puts forward compelling evidence to show that hybrid working is not only compatible with performance (in other words, employees can achieve just as much while working from home two days a week) but may generate considerable revenue savings through lower turnover in the long run,” says workplace wellbeing expert Dr Amanda Wallis.

“Of note, women in the study benefited most from hybrid working when it came to staying in their jobs. 

“This is evidence that work flexibility may help to tip the scales towards gender equality, keeping women in paid employment, and enabling men to take on a greater domestic role in the household by freeing up commute time for household tasks,” she said.

The full study is accessible here.